A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
A new rumor claims that Concord Game Director Ryan Ellis stepped down from his position after the game’s abysmal failure that saw its servers shut down about two weeks after it launched.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Ellis announced the game would shutter in a blog post on the PlayStation blog at the beginning of September. He shared, “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.”
He then declared, Therefore, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players. While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Now, a new rumor from Kotaku’s Ethan Gach claims that Ellis has stepped down from his position as Game Director.
Gach wrote, “[Ryan Ellis] told staff at Firewalk last week that he would be stepping down from his game director role and move into a support role instead, according to three sources familiar with the change.”
This should not be a surprise given it’s quite difficult to be a Game Director when you do not have a game to direct.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Aside from this rumor that Ellis has stepped as Game Director, Gach claims three sources inside Firewalk Studios informed him that they are “pessimistic” about Concord returning.
At least one of them allegedly informed him that they “have been asked to explore pitches for something completely different” than Concord.
He also indicated that there is uncertainty as to what happens to the studio moving forward. While some may have been asked to pitch new projects, other are speculating that they might get moved to other studios within the PlayStation Studios network. Still others believe that layoffs are around the corner.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
This information is not new. Firewalk Studios Senior Concept Artist Amanda Kiefer previously revealed employees were “terrified of the future” after the game was shut down.
Kiefer wrote on X, “I was going to DM you after seeing this, but this site makes me pay to do that, so at the risk of getting dogpiled, I’m just going to say this here: a lot affected the art side of concord including design by committee, failure of some leadership to listen to the art team, etc”
She continued, “the character concept art team including myself is going through an extremely difficult time emotionally, and some of the team no longer want to work in games, design characters, or even do art anymore after this. Because of this, posts like yours, though understandable are unfortunately ill-timed. None of us know which way the wind will blow with the studio, we are worried sick and terrified of the future. Not only that, but we have been shouldering the brunt of the emotional labor as executives/directors dodge most of the blame.”
ImagineAmanda on X
Kiefer then added, “Behind the scenes of all this talk about concord and character designs, people’s livelihoods are at risk and there are very real financial consequences that might hurt us even more.
She concluded, “That’s just what I can say from our point of view. I’m not saying change course or anything – us artists like being able to use social media to promote our work and get more jobs. But I am saying we see this, and it does absolutely effect us since we just got our teeth kicked in.”
ImagineAmanda on X
It’s quite possible that Firewalk Studios gets the Bungie treatment. At the end of July, Bungie, which is also a subsidiary of PlayStation Studios like Firewalk, laid off around 17% of its staff, transferred a 12% to other companies within Sony, and then spun off an incubation project which included an estimated 80 or so people into its own studio.
Bungie CEO and Chairman Pete Parsons stated, “Beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of our studio’s workforce. These actions will affect every level of the company, including most of our executive and senior leader roles.”
He added, “We are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters. … Second, we are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development.”
This is definitely possible given when Sony purchased Firewalk Studios from ProbablyMonsters, the press release detailed that Firewalk would “collaborate alongside world-class development teams, including Bungie and Haven Interactive Studios, to define a new generation of live service experiences for PlayStation gamers.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
What do you make of this rumor regarding Ryan Ellis stepping down as Game Director of Concord?
