Sony officially killed it Concord and closes the studio after the game. ConcordServers have been taken down just two weeks after the launch of the competitive team shooter from Firewalk Studios after poor sales. Firewalk’s game director Ryan Ellis chose to cast himself in a very supporting role next Concord‘s, and Sony had said he would look into their options for the project. The verdict is in.
“After much consideration, we have decided that the best way forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio,” said Hermen Hulst of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group in a statement today. “I want to thank all of Firewalk for their professionalism, creativity and dedication.” Said the representative Bloomberg News that Firewalk Studios has 172 employees who will lose their jobs.
The online game business is brutal, too Concord it may have suffered a long period of development, meaning that some team shooters were already prominent and defined the expectations of players. Many similar games are free to play and support themselves financially through a battle pass or season model. Players may have been put off by the $40 price tag for the new location, or perhaps the brand was just too crowded Concord to the muscle.
Whatever the reasons, today’s news marks another difficult chapter for the world of game development. Firewalk Studios is the producer to have this level of commercial failure, but it’s yet another closure in an industry that has seen a lot of turmoil in recent years. Layoffs and shutdowns have been a hot topic in sports, but several recent cases have been similar to Firewalk, which was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment last spring. Netflix abruptly shut down its AAA studio last week before the team announced the project. Microsoft closed three Zenimax family studios earlier this year. As a few groups control a growing share of the gaming industry, tolerance for censorship and thin profit margins will likely decrease. And this kind of sudden upheaval can be very common.
Update, October 29, 2024, 2:52PM ET: The story has been updated with additional context ConcordFirewalk Studios employee numbers and general studio closing trends.
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