A Concord insider alleges that the game’s original parent company, ProbablyMonsters, will not survive the game’s catastrophic failure that saw it get shut down by Firewalk Studios and PlayStation in less than two weeks after its initial release due to a lack of players.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
If you recall, PlayStation and Firewalk Studios shut down Concord back in September with Firewalk Studios’ Game Director Ryan Ellis announcing on the PlayStation blog, “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.”
He also shared that the company will be offering full refunds, “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. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
The announcement came after the game failed to attract any kind of substantial player base. When the game released on August 23rd it only hit a peak concurrent player count of just 697 on Steam.
Concord Steam DB concurrent player data
It also did not appear to do well on PlayStation. The latest data from PSNProfiles indicates that only 1,825 people purchased the game.
A screenshot of PSNProfiles.com showing player counts for Concord.
True Trophies also reported the game bombed out of the gate, landing in the 147th most popular PlayStation game on its weekly chart when it first released.
In its second week, the game fell to 180th. When it was in Early Access and Open Beta it was in the 29th position.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
After the game was shut down, it was reported that the game reportedly cost $400 million to develop not including what Sony paid to purchase Firewalk Studios.
Colin Moriarty shared in a video uploaded to X that an insider informed him “that Concord cost about $400 million to make.”
I spoke extensively with someone who worked on Concord, and it’s so much worse than you think.
It was internally referred to as “The Future of PlayStation” with Star Wars-like potential, and a dev culture of “toxic positivity” halted any negative feedback.
Making it cost $400m. pic.twitter.com/F5O0oy4gaQ
— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024
He went on to reveal that ProbablyMonsters, the original owner of Firewalk Studios and Concord before selling to PlayStation Studios, Sony, and the game’s original investors had spent $200 million on the game before it even made it to its Alpha state.
Moriarty said, “Up to the point of the game went to Alpha state they had already spent $200 million on it. And it’s unclear how much of that money is from ProbablyMonsters and the original investors into the game, and how much of that was from Sony.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Next, he shared, “When the game had $200 million spent on it and was basically in an Alpha form in Quarter 1 of 2023 from that point until the game launched Sony spent another $200 million on it.”
“The scuttlebutt behind the scenes about Concord is that the game was in a laughable shape when it was shown, basically when the Alpha was ready to go.” he continued. “It was in such horrible shape that Sony felt they needed to spend that much money again. So 200 + 200 to get the game to the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) status. Not to the status of it being a great game. To get it to just viability.”
“A major expense was to urgently outsource much of the game to other studios to finish building the game out,” he shared. “And that two fundamental games were not worked on at all up to the point in which the game was shown in Alpha: onboarding, nothing about that. There was nothing about how players make their character all that kind of stuff or choose their character and get there. And monetization. Two very expensive, very specific and boutique things that happen to games like this.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Later in the video, Moriarty claimed that executives at Sony and specifically PlayStation Studios boss Herman Hulst were championing the game and believed the game could be their Star Wars.
He noted that at Sony they were describing the game as “the future of PlayStation. That they had such major ambition for this game that it was referred to internally as a Star Wars project for Sony. That it can be repeatedly revisited over and over and over again. Not only in cross media, but in what we were seeing.” He pointed to the game being featured in Prime Video’s upcoming Secret Levels show as well as the weekly story vignettes the developers promised.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Now, a Concord insider tells That Park Place that he does not believe that ProbablyMonsters will survive moving forward albeit he does think there are some people who might be able to salvage the company and thread the needle, but only time will tell.
He also noted that morale at the company is “horrifically low.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
This is unsurprising given Firewalk Studios Concept Artist Amanda Kiefer previously revealed that employees at Firewalk Studios were “terrified of the future.”
In a series of posts to X she wrote, ““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
Furthermore, ProbablyMonsters did appear to be heavily connected with Sony and PlayStation and it led to PlayStation purchasing Firewalk Studios in April 2023. At the time of the purchase Head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst stated, “We’ve had the privilege of working with ProbablyMonsters and Firewalk for several years and our teams share the same ambition to create meaningful experiences for gamers. Firewalk’s innovative approach to connected storytelling and its commitment to high-quality gameplay continues to exceed our expectations. I think fans will be very pleased when they see what Firewalk has in store for them.”
ProbablyMonsters CEO and President Harold Ryan also added, “ProbablyMonsters is incredibly proud of the team and the game we incubated and built over the past few years. Firewalk Studios joining PlayStation Studios is a brilliant move for the team, game, and future players. Our goal at ProbablyMonsters is to find the best path to market for all of our games, and we couldn’t be happier for the Firewalk team.
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
Their connection goes as far back as the founding of Firewalk Studios at ProbablyMonsters in 2018. Firewalk Studios’ Studios Head Tony Hsu revealed to IGN back in 2021, “With ProbablyMonsters’ support, we were able to really focus on a game concept we’ve been excited about and we met Sony in 2018.”
He added, “And since that first meeting with them, they’ve been incredibly excited and huge supporters of not just the team, but also the project that we’ve been working on.”
A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
What do you make of this insider’s comments regarding Concord’s original parent company?
