Concord: A tragedy told in two weeks

By now, I’m sure everyone’s heard the news about Concord . Firewalk’s poor multiplayer title launched into a most unfavorable market without really much going for it, and proceeded to do so poorly at sales that PlayStation and Firewalk have now pulled it from stores and essentially shut it down until further notice. They’ve also refunded all digital purchases of the game on console and PC (though I understand that physical copies of the game are still around, albeit not always in the hands of scrupulous people).

It’s a sad end to the story of Concord’s development and launch. Firewalk is a young studio and Concord was their debut title. PlayStation originally partnered with the studio to back the project in 2021 before acquiring Firewalk in 2023 — and at all points in this, showed nothing but enthusiasm for the project.

Firewalk’s vision of a new multiplayer IP, which originally began as a bun in the oven over at ProbablyMonsters, seemed so wholesome. Tony Hsu said at the time of the PlayStation backing partnership: “These amazing and unpredictable moments in gaming are the sparks that occur when playing with others; future memories ready to be replayed and retold.” And damn that’s sad to read now.

The worst part of this story is that it was likely an avoidable tragedy. Granted, it’s hard to imagine the team retooling it from a live-service multiplayer title, given their obvious excitement for the genre, but there were other ways to make it more palatable. The release date, the premium price tag, the aloof and extremely short marketing campaign — Concord didn’t need to be launch with so many disadvantages.

Part of me wonders how we would all have reacted to Concord in a world where Sony never partnered with Firewalk ...

unfortunately, the question then becomes whether the game would even have launched at all. In personal news, I just got back from a preview event where I got to play several hours of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And since I’m not yet able to speak about the game, I’ll tell you instead that it’s tiring to sit in one place and play a game for that long.

So I think this weekend I’m in the mood for some short gameplay experiences, something I can pick up and put down more easily. Vampire Therapist has been sitting on my figurative Steam shelf waiting for more attention, and Emio: The Smiling Man — Famicom Detective Club and Ace Attorney Investigations Collection would both sate my current appetite. But if I can get my hands on Astro Bot, that would also fit the bill.

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