Concord recently launched on August 23 with high expectations as PlayStation’s next big hit. However, the game fell far short of those expectations, attracting fewer than 700 concurrent players on its launch day on Steam.
In a surprising move, PlayStation has announced that it will be shutting down Concord, just two weeks after its release. The decision was communicated through a blog post recently, where the company revealed that the game would go offline on September 6.
PlayStation cited the need to explore options, including those that will better reach their players as the reason for the sudden closure.
Importance: Concord’s failure highlights that even industry giants like PlayStation, with decades of experience, can misstep, leading to a game being shut down just weeks after its release.
Ryan Ellis, the game director, acknowledged the mixed reception of the game, stating that 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.
As part of the shutdown process, PlayStation will be offering full refunds to those who purchased the game, and all future sales have been halted with immediate effect.
Since launch, the game’s player count continued to decline steadily, and just before the shutdown announcement, the game was struggling to reach 100 concurrent players on the platform.
While there is no official data on how the game performed on PlayStation 5, reports indicated that Concord sold around 25,000 copies. However, the actual number is likely lower when factoring in early refunds.
The swift shutdown of Concord raises questions about the challenges PlayStation faced with the game’s development and launch. For now, players who were interested in Concord will have to look elsewhere, as the game’s brief run comes to an end on September 6.
It appears that Concord failed so significantly that PlayStation decided against providing any post-launch support to improve the game for players. Despite this setback, we remain hopeful for a brighter future with upcoming titles from the gaming giant.
