Since launching on August 23, Concord has struggled to attract players, drawing comparisons with some of the worst-received games to come out in recent years like Redfall and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum with its shockingly low concurrent player numbers on Steam and minimal engagement on PlayStation 5. However, even when you compare it to its contemporaries, Concord stands out as a unique case—it isn’t a bad game, it’s a good game that just feels it doesn’t know who it wants to sell itself to and why.
Perhaps the most critical issue facing Concord is its lack of differentiation in one of gaming’s most oversaturated genres. When development on the game began, Sony was capitalizing on the then-popular trend of multiplayer shooters started in 2016 by by Overwatch. In the years since, the market has become flooded with similar titles, many of which have established strong player bases and brand recognition.
You also have to wonder what Sony thought releasing Concord in between Black Myth: Wukong and Star Wars Outlaws with minimal marketing. The game quickly found itself overshadowed by the hype and marketing surrounding its competitors, including the surprise release of Deadlock, further hampering its ability to capture attention and build any sort of meaningful momentum. To make matters worse, Concord’s premium price tag of $30 has made it difficult for the game to attract players willing to take a chance on a new IP.
In a recent report by IGN, data from Circana’s Player Engagement Tracker shows that Concord ranked 147th in US PS5 daily active players on August 26, with fewer than 0.2% of the day’s active PS5 players engaging with the game. Estimated total sales figures paint a grim picture, with around 10,000 units sold on Steam and approximately 15,000 on PlayStation.
Mat Piscatella, an analyst at Circana, noted how PlayStation failed to build any kind of traction at the time of its release, resulting in low awareness and purchase intent among gamers. As of July, only a small percentage of players were even aware of Concord’s existence.
Now considered one of the worst AAA video game releases in recent history, things get worse for Concord when you consider the narrative surrounding its creation and release. It’s believed that Concord cost somewhere around $100 million to develop, roughly the same amount it cost to make hit titles like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ghost of Tsushima, which obviously paint its failure in an even bleaker light.
Redfall, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and Skull & Bones, which were all criticized in the days leading up to and after their respective release, all put up better numbers than Concord. The closest comparison to Concord as far as budget and return of investment goes is Immortals of Aveum, which faced a similar situation in its release last year that resulted in a massive layoff wave over at its developers, Ascendant Studios.
Does this mean that Sony will backtrack on its live service ambitions? Not likely. Jim Ryan might have left but Hermen Hulst is still there. Both were huge proponents of the live service push. Sony has also seen success with titles like Helldivers 2, and the potential rewards of a successful live service game are too significant to ignore. At the very least, Concord’s failure should remind Sony that its upcoming releases need more oversight.
Chasing AAA trends is par for the course in any industry. However, with the lengthy development cycles of modern games, more should consider doing what Techland is doing with Dying Light: The Beast—and coincidentally, what Sony has experimented with in recent years— and release standalone titles in between major releases if only to gauge the market, preventing the release of an outdated and unnecessary game like Concord.
Looking forward, Sony should continue pursuing live service games but expect to see a more cautious approach, especially as its investments in Asia are starting to pay off, as evidenced by Stellar Blade and Black Myth: Wukong, with more coming by way of the China Hero Project.
As for Concord, it’s far too late to save it. Sony might try to save it with a last hurrah in the guise of a PS Plus release, but don’t expect to see a turnaround.
