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Sony's leadership has claimed serious missteps in the development and launch of Concord, the controversial live service shooter that was pulled from sale just two weeks after release following embarrassing sales numbers. During a recent financial call, Sony President Hiroki Totoki revealed that inadequate early testing and evaluation contributed to one of PlayStation's most costly failures to date.
The ambitious hero shooter, developed by the now-shuttered Firewalk Studios, represented a significant investment for Sony, with initial development costs reported at around $200 million. Sources familiar with the agreement indicate this substantial sum didn't even cover the complete development cycle or acquisition costs for Firewalk Studios and the Concord IP.
The game's rapid demise has become a cautionary tale in the live service space. With estimated sales of only 25,000 copies, Concord's performance fell catastrophically short of expectations, leading Sony to quickly pull the plug and ultimately close Firewalk Studios entirely.
"Currently we are still in the process of learning," Totoki admitted during the financial call. "With regards to new IP, of course you don't know the result until you actually try it. We need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates, we need to bring them forward."
The executive also pointed to organizational challenges within Sony, citing issues with the company's "siloed organization" and suggesting that better cooperation between development and sales teams could have improved outcomes. The game's August release window, which put it in direct competition with the successful Black Myth: Wukong, was also highlighted as a potential factor in its failure.
Sony's struggles with live service games extend beyond Concord. While Helldivers 2 has proven a massive success with 12 million copies sold in 12 weeks, other projects have faced significant challenges. Naughty Dog canceled its planned The Last of Us multiplayer game last December, and Bungie has implemented substantial layoffs amid Destiny 2's declining performance.
Despite these setbacks, Sony maintains ambitious plans in the live service space. During the same financial call, Senior Vice President Sadahiko Hayakawa emphasized the company's commitment to learning from both successes and failures. "We intend to share the lessons learned across our studios, including in the areas of title development management and the process of continually adding expanded content," he explained.
The company said it aims to balance its portfolio between traditional single-player experiences and live service games, with several major projects still in development. These include Bungie's Marathon, Guerrilla's Horizon Online, and Haven Studio's Fairgame$.
However, industry analysts remain cautious about the strategy. As Midia Research analyst Rhys Elliott noted, "Pivoting to live services is a high-risk, high-reward venture, and the risk is heightening to levels that might not be worth it for many AAA console/PC publishers that aren't already active in the space."
The failure of Concord joins a growing list of troubled live service launches, including Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which reportedly cost Warner Bros. $200 million in lost revenue. Both titles were also criticized heavily by gamers for pushing unpopular, niche narratives. These incidents highlight the increasing challenges publishers face as they attempt to establish new franchises in the competitive live service market.
