Sony burned $400 million on a game for PS5 and Steam

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The shooter Concord was supposed to be a big success for Sony, but was discontinued on Steam and PS5 after just a few days. A podcaster now claims that Sony lost a lot more money than previously thought.

Where does this number come from? Former IGN editor Colin Moriarty shared the alleged $400 million production cost on September 20, 2024 on his PlayStation podcast Sacred Symbols (via X).

Moriarty claims that a person who was involved in the development of Concord contacted him. He checked the source and is absolutely sure.

  • Sony had high hopes for Concord, which was supposed to become a franchise like Star Wars. They wanted to return to the universe again and again for years and had numerous plans for crossover projects. The Amazon series Secret Level was just the beginning.
  • Based on these high expectations, 400 million US dollars were invested in development. This does not even include the costs of taking over the Concord developer Firewalk.
  • Internally, Concord was also surrounded by a “culture of toxic positivity”: No one was allowed to criticize or question the game. Concerns, such as those about the controversial character design, were thus drowned out.

    • According to Moriarty, the high sum comes about because Sony had already worked with the Concord makers before acquiring Firewalk. When the shooter reached the alpha phase in the first quarter of 2023, $200 million had already been invested – although it is unclear how much of the money actually came from Sony.

    At that point, however, Concord was in a “ridiculous state.” Sony had to invest another $200 million to even be able to release it. In return, large parts of the development were outsourced to other studios.

    If you want to know more about the background of Concord, you can read the story of the Sony shooter here.

    Concord had big plans for upcoming content, but never made it past Season 0.

    Concord: ‘The Stars Are Ours’ Cinematic Vignette Season 0: Episode 0

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    Concord would have cost more than previous Sony hits

    Is that realistic? The sum spread by Moriarty seems absurdly high and should be viewed with at least a healthy dose of skepticism. To put the number into perspective:

  • With a budget of $400 million, Concord would be one of the most expensive games of all time and would have cost almost as much as Cyberpunk 2077 including DLC ​​and more than GTA 5.
  • For Sony, the title would have been the biggest investment to date: more expensive than Spider-Man 2 and 3, The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West.

    • Investing that much money in a completely new IP would be… brave. The figure also exceeds previous estimates by several times: Up until now, even critical voices had assumed a figure of 250 million dollars, but conservative estimates were closer to 100 million.

    The estimates are based on the fact that a lot of well-paid people worked on Concord for 6 years. However, screenshots from Firewalk employees show that the shooter was still a vague idea in 2018, and in 2019 fewer than a dozen developers were working on it (via X).

    Although there were ultimately significantly more people involved in Concord, they were not paid throughout the entire development period. So you might ask yourself where all the money went.

    Marketing – which sometimes costs more than the development itself – was unlikely, as relatively little had been heard about Concord beforehand. Here on MeinMMO, readers had stated that they had only heard about it through reports of the shooter’s failure.

    In the comments on X and a thread in the PS5 subreddit, hardly anyone can imagine that this sum is actually true.

    Sony insider doubts figures

    Among the doubters is Dev Walker, who has worked for Rocksteady, Respawn and the Sony studio Naughty Dog and is a representative of the BAFTA Games Awards. He writes on X that he does not trust the sum – even if Sony has outsourced large parts of the development.

    Walker says he listened to the entire podcast and is personally familiar with PlayStation’s outsourcing costs. The numbers don’t make sense. The fact that the acquisition of Firewalk isn’t even included is his main reason not to believe the claims (via X).

    All that can be said with certainty is that it is not known how much Sony spent on the Firewalk acquisition or invested in Concord. All figures, whether estimates or supposed insider reports, are unconfirmed and should not be considered as facts.

    Despite Concord, Sony wants to go through with its bold plan for PS5 – The next service game is from a well-known developer

    Meanwhile, Concord Game Director Ryan Ellis has stepped down from his position and moved into a supporting role. For long-time players, this means saying goodbye to an old acquaintance, as Ellis was the creative director of the best DLC in Destiny, now he is the face of Sony’s flop on PS5 and Steam

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