After an infamously rocky launch with low player counts and mediocre reviews, PlayStation’s live-service hero shooter Concord is going offline, and the developers are issuing full refunds.
Firewalk Studios game director Ryan Ellis announced the move in a PlayStation blog post on Tuesday, saying that the studio needs time to “determine the best path ahead.” As such, the game will be removed from storefronts and taken offline on Friday, September 6 — just two weeks after launch.
“However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended,” Ellis wrote. “Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
The developers are also offering full refunds for game owners. PlayStation owners will receive a refund back to their original payment method. Steam and Epic Games Store will refund players over the next few days, while players who purchased the game through a retailer like Amazon will need to contact that retailer directly.
The blog post doesn’t explicitly state what Firewalk Studios will be focusing on to reinvent the game, but there are a ton of criticisms from both reviewers and the player base. Whether Concord was just too late to the hero-shooter trend, didn’t have anything original to bring to the table, needed some gameplay retooling, or players are dealing with live-service fatigue, there’s a lot that the team needs to look at if they want to bring Concord back online.
Concord has been in development for around eight years, according to lead character designer Jon Weisnewski. Firewalk Studios was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2023 as part of its larger push into live-service games, coupled with its purchase of Destiny 2 developer Bungie. Ahead of launch, Firewalk Studios was committed to three seasons; the first, called Tempest, was scheduled to launch in October. It also had two beta periods in July with all freegunners (the playable characters) available.
