With only 660 simultaneous players on Steam, the hero shooter Concord is a flop for Sony. But even worse than the low player numbers is the mockery that the project is receiving. The characters in particular are described as ugly – with Overwatch 2 and Valorant, the €40 title also has strong free competition. The flop could endanger Sony’s big MMO plans, which wanted to build on the success of Destiny.
What kind of game is this?
Sony shows first gameplay of the new PvP shooter Concord
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Concord’s origins lie in a bad year for Destiny
Where does the game come from? The origins of the game lie with Destiny – there was apparently trouble behind the scenes in 2016 because Destiny 2, which was planned for 2016, had to be postponed.
We don’t know for sure, but this is probably why Bungie’s long-time boss, Harold Ryan, had to leave. Pete Parsons, who is now also highly controversial, took over.
Ryan founded a new company, “Probably Monsters,” with some Bungie employees and wanted to build independent teams to build MMO games. One of the studios, Firewalk, was sold to Sony in April 2023 – who now brought Concord to market, which they had been working on since 2018.
Concord should be a pioneer of Sony’s new strategy
This was Sony’s plan: Sony’s plan was to use exactly these teams and acquisitions to develop 10 new “live service games” for PS5 and PC by March 2026. Concord was now set to become one of 10 “original AAA multiplayer games.”
In order to realize this plan and secure more expertise in live service games, Sony also bought Bungie. But the plan to release 10 new live service games now seems to have suffered a setback.
“Ugliest characters of all time”
What is the reaction now? On social media, the characters are repeatedly cited as a point of criticism, as they are apparently viewed as “unattractive.”
Concord is seen by Twitch streamers as Sony’s “$100 million flop.” Streamers like Asmgonold publicly mock the flop.
Asmongold mocks a tweet from a disappointed developer with little reach. His video on the subject has 770,000 views:
“It has more pronouns than players”
It fits with Asmongold’s current narrative that studios that consciously focus on diversity are unsuccessful and fail to meet the wishes of players.
Asmongold reads a caustic tweet: “Concord has more pronouns than players.”
The “Battleborn/Evolve” effect
This is what’s behind it: Aside from character design, the “Battleborn/Evolve” phenomenon is hitting Concord. A game that clearly looks like a free2play game and competes against free2play competition is sold for €40 and hardly anyone sees the point in paying for such a game when there are established games like Overwatch 2 or Valorant that you can play for free.
Battleborn (2016) and Evolve (2015) are considered to be the biggest flops in modern gaming, with many units produced but remaining on the shelves as slow-sellers.
Just as Concord is now suffering from Overwatch 2, the hero shooter Battleborn was doomed by Overwatch 1 8 years ago. Hero shooters have probably been the genre that has caused the most costly flops in gaming in recent years anyway: Amazon had a huge shooter flop in 2020 – ex-developer now says: “That was obvious”