Concord May be ‘Unsalvageable’ According to One Analyst as Fans Debate Potential Free-to-Play Future

As of about 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET on September 6, Concord’s servers are officially closed. Sony’s troubled live service game didn’t even last two weeks, failing to fill its beta and launching to a tragically low concurrent count on Steam. Ultimately it is estimated to have only sold around 25,000 units, which is extraordinarily low by first-party release standards.

Concord servers are now offline.

Thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy. pic.twitter.com/o1dTywrqUx

— Concord (@PlayConcord) September 6, 2024

On Bluesky, Circana executive director Mat Piscatella called Concord’s shutdown “unprecedented,” nothing that even Anthem was the best-selling game of February 2019 and is still playable today. Asked how it compares to the likes of The Day Before and Crucible, two other games that were shuttered soon after release, Piscatella said that this “one reads differently to me than anything that’s come before,” describing it as being “soundly rejected” by players.

It makes Concord one of the most remarkable news stories of the year — a first party release that ultimately never had a chance.

Does Concord have a future as a free-to-play game?

Still, at least some fans are wondering if there’s a future for Sony’s shooter. Could Concord work as a free-to-play game? That’s been one of the main questions on platforms like X/Twitter and Resetera as fans debate the path ahead for Sony. Even before Concord shut down, Forbes writer Paul Tassi called its transition to free-to-play “inevitable,” though wondered if it would change things.

There are certainly plenty of sticking points. The roster failed to resonate with fans, and the art style and writing has variously been described as a kind of off-brand Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s also little in terms of innovation to differentiate Concord from other hero shooters. In a market flooded with live service games, success is increasingly a zero sum game, and Concord was on the wrong side of the divide.

Nevertheless, we found points to like about Concord. In our review, we described the competitive gameplay as “fantastic” and praised its map design. In its closing days, a collection of trophy hunters made a last second dash to try and grab what will soon be one of PlayStation’s rarest Platinums, even going so far as to throw themselves off cliffs to grind XP.

So will it return? One Resetera user opines. “I’m guessing it’ll probably end up going F2P and then quietly shuttered if it doesn’t find an audience quickly. Doing that’s going to be a hell of a task though as the game was designed around progress not being monetised. I feel terrible for Firewalk, all that time invested into what’s apparently a pretty decent game to have this happen straight after launch. I have a horrible feeling that there’s going to be some layoffs coming soon.”

Piscatella, for his part, is uncertain. “On the one hand, the game and the IP were just so soundly rejected of it that one may think it unsalvageable. On the other hand, so few know about the game that perhaps it could be brought back with a different model and a significant refresh. I think this is an unprecedented situation, with all options on the table, so anyone’s guess is probably as good as mine.”

What’s next for Sony

For what it’s worth, Concord isn’t completely finished. As we reported yesterday, Concord is still set to appear in Secret Level, the upcoming Prime Video anthology series by Tim Miller that also features the likes of God of War, Mega Man, and Warhammer 40K. While it seems unlikely that it will re-ignite interest in the property, it does represent at least one spark of life for the franchise.

The future of Firewalk Studios, for its part, is unclear. The studio behind Concord was established as part of ProbablyMonsters in 2018 and acquired by PlayStation in 2023. Design director Josh Hamrick tweeted throughout the week, thanking fans and signing off when the servers went down with “FREEGUNNER FOR LIFE.”

At one point he wrote wistfully, “I started at Firewalk in the Spring of 2019. We were less than a dozen devs working shoulder to shoulder in a friend’s attic.”

Sony, meanwhile, has more free-to-play games on the way, including Fairgame$ and Bungie’s Marathon. Marathon has already had its share of problems, at one point being forced to replace its director amid layoffs and other problems. Little has been shown of Fairgame$ outside of a CG trailer, but GI.biz’s Chris Dring recently said that he’s been hearing positive buzz about the game. One way or another, the future of Sony’s live service strategy is uncertain, though PlayStation can claim at least one victory thanks to the success of Helldivers 2 in the first part of the year (though it has also struggled of late).

For now, Sony can take comfort in Astro Bot, which is both single-player and receiving rave reviews. As for whether Concord will ever get another chance of its own, we’ll just have to see.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.