Sony is shutting down Concord developer Firewalk Studios. This happens just under two months after the companies took the game offline, and delisted the live service shooter.
Firewalk Studios shuts down after Concord flops
In an update from Sony Interactive Entertainment (as spotted by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier), the company has decided to close Firewalk Studios and sunset the game. This is due to the live service shooter drastically underperforming. SIE says it will take the lessons learned, and continue to further its live service push. The statement does say they took a lot of time these past few months looking at other options, but felt the “best path forward” was shuttering the studio.
“After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio,” says the SIE statement. ”I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
“The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title,” the statement continues. “We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
In the same statement, SIE also announced it would shut down mobile game studio Neon Koi. SIE says it will find placement within its own studios to some of those impacted by the closures.
“I know none of this is easy news to hear, particularly with colleagues and friends departing SIE,” says the statement. “Both decisions were given serious thought, and ultimately, we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization. Neon Koi and Firewalk were home to many talented individuals, and we will work to find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible.”
Shortly after Concord was taken offline, every trace of its existence was erased from players’ consoles. This seemed to point towards SIE not bringing this game back. However, hope was sparked when Concord game files on Steam’s back-end were being updated by Sony. This led to speculation that the game may go free to play. Obviously, that is no longer the case.
(Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment)