Concord developer expresses gratitude for support following the sudden shutdown: ‘For all of you reaching out with love, you are the reason we make games’

The sudden shutdown of the newly-launched hero shooter Concord sparked an entirely unsurprising wave of unfortunate grave dancing amongst people who decried the game for being too “woke” or diverse, rather than being a game “for gamers,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. But amidst all that predictable sound and fury, there are also messages of support for the developers at Firewalk Studios, and expressions of hope from fans that Concord will be back.

Concord went into full release on August 23, which means it lasted only 11 days before Firewalk and Sony had seen enough. It’s hard to overstate what a high-speed train wreck that represents: Amazon’s Crucible lasted more than a month before it was un-launched in 2020, while Valve’s CCG Artifact made it almost three years—admittedly with miniscule player counts—before the axe finally fell. Even the infamous Anthem struggled along for a couple years before Electronic Arts threw in the towel.