TL;DR: Firewalk Studios worked on Concord for years, and Sony finally released the game for PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23. Despite being a high-profile title in the extremely popular hero shooter genre, however, Concord has been a big disappointment from a business perspective so far.
Concord has been available for less than two weeks, but its sales numbers are far from encouraging. According to estimates provided by various market analysts, the Overwatch-like first-person shooter has sold only a few thousand copies on both PC and PS5. If officially confirmed, these underwhelming results would turn into one of the worst financial gaming failures recorded in recent times.
According to analyst Simon Carless, total sales for the PC (Steam) version of Concord amount to just 10,000 units. The PS5 version of the game would add around 15,000 units to that count. Concord costs $40, and took a significant financial effort from Sony.
Midia Research analyst Rhys Elliot notes that even a well-made and fun game has very few chances of success in today’s oversaturated live-service market. As of writing, lukewarm reviews have Concord earning a middling 66/100 metascore.
Concord wasn’t exactly the most sought-after multiplayer experience during its open beta period. Furthermore, the PC release attracted just a few hundred players, while the single-player title Black Myth: Wukong sold millions of copies in its first three days. As noted by Omdia analyst Liam Deane, the Steam numbers are apparently so bad that “even without knowing the exact data on the PS5 side we can be pretty certain that the game is doing very badly.”
What went wrong with Concord’s apparent failure to attract enough players despite being a full-fledged Sony first-party title? Deane explains that live-service games usually have a high failure rate, meaning not every new party-based shooter can achieve the same success as Helldivers 2.
These kinds of products rely on the network effect, Deane says, with a game becoming more appealing when more and more people start to play it. But Concord’s player counts will have to pick up very quickly very soon, or no one will be there to play the game anymore.
Concord should have been a free-to-play game from day one, argues Elliot, or at least launch as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription plan to have a greater chance for success in an overcrowded genre. Sony could still relaunch the game as a free experience to try and pick up more players, but the damage might have already been done.