This Washington-based developer was founded in 2018, by senior veterans of shooters like Halo and Destiny. With this prestige multiplayer expertise and Sony's increased focus on live-service, it's not surprising they acquired Firewalk in April 2023.
Firewalk announced Concord shortly after in May 2023 - a 5vs5 live-service FPS that released on PS5/PC in August 2024. Yet it took until May 2024 to actually see Concord via story and gameplay trailers that were universally hated, with character designs especially panned. Playtests also showcased how gameplay wasn't good enough to justify $40 - especially compared to its F2P competitors like Fortnite and Overwatch.
Concord was a historically poor launch for Sony. It's tied with Firewall Ultra, Destruction AllStars and Lost Soul Aside for the lowest first-party PS5 Metacritic score at 62. Concord also only sold 25,000 - a figure so low that Sony removed it from sale and forced refunds 11 days later because they'd recoup more with Concord as a tax writeoff.
Firewalk explored how to successfully bring back Concord, but in October, Firewalk closed along with confirmation that Concord wouldn't return. It's therefore easy to predict that there'll be no more PS5 titles from them.
This was the first time Sony refunded a game solely due to its reception. It also resulted in over $200 million in losses and led to Firewalk closing. Concord and Firewalk are therefore easily the biggest PS Studios failure of the PS5 era.
Genre: Live-Service PvP FPS
Release Date: August 23, 2024
Days Since Their Last Game: N/A
Metacritic Score: 62