Sony sensationally takes Concord offline with no return in sight, refunds coming for Steam PC and PlayStation

What you need to know

• Concord is a new team-based PvP hero shooter from PlayStation Studios and Firewalk Studios that was released on Windows PC and PS5 on August 23, 2024.
• The game has completely failed to get off the ground, with concurrent players on Steam never surpassing 1,000 and now averaging between 30-100 just a little over a week after its launch.
• PlayStation and Firewalk have ultimately decided to take the game offline for an indefinite hiatus, which will begin on September 6. In the coming days, refunds will be issued to all players on PC and PS5. Note that if you purchased a physical copy of the game, you'll have to follow the refund process of the retailer you got it from.
• Whether or not Concord will return is currently unclear, though Firewalk says it will "determine the best path ahead" and "explore options, including those that will better reach our players."

The catastrophic performance of PlayStation's Concord has been the talk of the town since the PvP hero shooter dropped in late August, and now — just a week and a half after the disastrous launch — the game is being put on ice until Sony and developer Firewalk Studios decide what's next.

The news came in an official blog post penned by game director Ryan Ellis that was published Tuesday morning, with Ellis noting that Concord will be taken offline and stay that way indefinitely starting on September 6, 2024. While "the best path ahead" is determined, full refunds will be offered to players who've purchased the FPS on Windows PC and PS5.

"Concord fans — we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us," reads the article. "However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players."

Based on the way the post is written, it sounds like the refund process for digital sales is being handled automatically in the coming days by Sony, Valve, and Epic Games for PS5, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, respectively. If you purchased a physical copy of Concord, however, you'll have to follow the process of whichever retailer you bought the game from. Note that once you get your refund, you'll lose access to the title.

Given that Concord has failed to break 1,000 concurrent players on Steam — SteamDB data shows that it peaked at 697, only rises to about 100 daily, and currently has 30 people in-game at the time of writing — I'd say the writing for a takedown like this was on the wall. Even so, it's shocking that it came so soon — and it all but confirms that Concord's PlayStation numbers haven't been meaningfully better.

While some will see the Concord's failure to get off the ground as an indicator of terrible quality, many reviews (and a 62/100 Metascore) suggest that it's actually an okay game. Ultimately, what I think actually happened here is that a market heavily oversaturated with hero shooters has completely rejected Concord, with most players simply not interested in an Overwatch-y experience that both doesn't stand out in any noteworthy way and costs $40 at a time when most of its competitors are free-to-play with zero barriers to entry.

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I'm not really sure where Sony and Firewalk can take Concord from here, but I'm in full agreement with my colleague Richard Devine that it has to start with a shift to a free-to-play model. I just don't see a reality in which players will be willing to spend $40 upfront on something that's made other recent flops like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Redfall look good by comparison, especially since it will be coming out of an eyebrow-raising hiatus.

Only time will tell, I suppose. But even if Concord — a game that was in development for eight entire years — does eventually resurface and perform decently, there's no question that this has been a huge blunder for Sony and PlayStation. And in the shadow of the wild success of Helldivers 2, the contrast couldn't be sharper. High highs and low lows.