The closures of Concord developer Firewalk Studios and mobile dev Neon Koi have attracted intense criticism from a labor union in North America. In a rather bizarre statement, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) implied that Sony is strengthening its monopoly by acquiring and shutting down studios. Yeah, we don’t understand that one either.
CWA’s statement on closure of Concord dev Firewalk and mobile dev Neon Koi
I’m having a hard time putting CWA’s statement in my own words, thanks in large part to the fact that it simply makes no sense. The quote, as shared by Game Developer, is as follows:
Sony’s decision to dissolve studios outside their walled-garden of PlayStation-exclusive content, rather than making games that have to compete in the highly diverse and competitive mobile game market, should be a cautionary warning sign of Sony’s interests in furthering their monopoly position in the video game industry.
If I’m reading this right, the closure of Neon Koi (which didn’t release any game under Sony) is being taken as a move to get rid of studios that don’t make PlayStation exclusive content, and CWA thinks that Sony didn’t actually have any plans to compete in the mobile game market?
The union added that it “plans to raise the anti-competitive impacts of Sony’s increasing monopoly and monopsony power with the appropriate antitrust regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders.”
While our thoughts go out to those affected by the closures, I’m not sure how Sony cutting its losses has been translated to “furthering their monopoly” in this case. But the CWA is no stranger to making bizarre claims, like the time it advocated for the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, arguing that it would secure jobs.