Sony shuts down Concord and closes studio following poor launch

Sony announced that it’s officially sunsetting Concord and closing its developer Firewalk Studios after a disastrous launch that led to it taking the game offline after just two weeks.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which acquired Firewalk in 2023, revealed in an email sent out to employees on Tuesday that it’s shutting down the studio, along with mobile developer Neon Koi, in order to “strengthen SIE’s Studio Business.” That means two studios acquired by Sony over the past two years have been closed.

While CEO Hermen Hulst says that there was a lot to like about Concord, it did not meet expectations and could not compete in the PvP first-person shooter space, which is full of competitors like Overwatch 2. Hulst added that Sony will “take the lessons learned from Concord and apply it to future projects. “We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options,” he wrote. “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit, and dedication.”

Firewalk Studios posted a statement on its X (formerly Twitter) account laying out its accomplishments, including a clarification that Concord started full production in 2022 since the studio spent years as a small startup. It called Concord a “great FPS experience to players — even if it landed much more narrowly than hoped against a heavily consolidated market.”

“We took some risks along the way – marrying aspects of card battlers and fighting games with first-person-shooters – and although some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t land as we hoped, the idea of putting new things into the world is critical to pushing the medium forward.”

Firewalk is signing off one last time.

Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
– Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…

— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024

As for Neon Koi (previously known as Savage Game Studios), which was reportedly working on a “AAA mobile live-service action game,” but had no other announced projects, Hulst said that the company wants to work on games that “are in line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to reach more players globally.” Hulst did reveal that Neon Koi was working on a mobile action game, but it won’t be moving forward with it.

Hulst added that SIE will work to find new placements within the company for impacted team members.

“I know none of this is easy news to hear, particularly with colleagues and friends departing SIE. Both decisions were given serious thought, and ultimately, we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization,” he wrote.

Concord had an infamously rocky launch on PlayStation 5 and PC in August. At its peak on launch day, it only had 697 concurrent players on PC, according to SteamDB. Mediocre reviews and low turnout led to Sony taking the game offline after just two weeks. The plan, according to Firewalk Studios game director Ryan Ellis, was to “explore options” for the game’s potential future. However, reports last month claimed that Ellis stepped down from the studio. Employees at the studio were also reportedly looking into pitches for new projects.