According to a report published by Concord, the initial development agreement was worth approximately $200 million My cityproviding insight into what it cost Sony to develop a disastrous live service game that lasted just two weeks before being unceremoniously shut down.
The Kotaku report, which cited two sources familiar with the deal, said the $200 million was not enough to fund the entire development of Concord, nor did it include the purchase of the intellectual property rights of Concord or Firewalk Studios itself. Kotaku’s figure is consistent with an earlier report saying that ProbablyMonsters – Firewalk’s original parent company – raised $200 million in 2021.
Firewalk signs for the last time.
Firewalk was created with the intention of bringing the joy of multiplayer gaming to a larger audience. Along the way, we assembled an incredible team that was able to:
– Lead the development of a recent startup as a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024
Firewalk’s farewell post sheds additional lightweight on its development costs. Looking back at the studio’s history, the note mentions that it was a recent startup during a global pandemic and that Concord didn’t go into full production until 2022. It also talks about building a “new, customized, next-gen FPS engine in Unreal 4 -> 5, bringing the highest quality gameplay, beautiful worlds and powerful technical experience at 60 frames per second on a stable and scalable backend on PS5 and PC to hundreds of thousands of players in our version beta.”
Everything indicates that Concord is perceived as an ambitious project that was intended to attract a large audience. Instead, it was met with lukewarm reviews and low interest, prompting PlayStation to pull the plug within days of launch. According to estimates, only about 25,000 copies were sold.
Midia research analyst Rhys Elliott told IGN shortly before Concord’s shutdown: “Moving to live services is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor, and the risk increases to a level that may not be worth it for many console publishers/ PC AAA who are no longer vigorous in space.”
Concord isn’t the only expensive game to fall short of expectations, as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is plagued with similar issues. Live service-based games increasingly face a calcified market dominated by games like Fortnite and Call of Duty, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce. Despite this, PlayStation continues to focus on service games, and the next projects on the list are Fairgame$ and Marathon.
PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst says Sony will learn from its experience with Firewalk Studios. “The PvP first-person shooter genre is a competitive space that is constantly evolving, and unfortunately we did not achieve our goals with this title. We will learn from Concord and continue to improve our live services capabilities to ensure future growth in this industry area.”
Kat Bailey is IGN’s news director and co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Got a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
