A screenshot from Concord (2024), Firewalk Studios
A rumor from Colin Moriarty, the host of Sacred Symbols, claims that Firewalk Studios’ Concord, which was shut down around two weeks after it released, cost $400 million to develop.
Moriarty detailed in a video uploaded to X that he spoke extensively with a Concord insider who informed him “that Concord cost about $400 million to make.”
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.”
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.”
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.
Next, he shared that there was a “toxic positivity vibe.” He stated, “You weren’t allowed to say anything internally about this game. About how something is wrong with it. Character designs are not right. They really, truly believed. This was Herman Hulst’s baby apparently. And he internally was himself a massive champion of the game.”
The idea that the game had a “toxic positivity vibe” rings true given a source close to ProbablyMonsters informed That Park Place that ProbablyMonsters had been shaken to its core due to not only the game’s failure, but to the extent that it failed.
While the company and its employees have been shaken by the failure, one thing that is not shaking them and that they are not even acknowledging is the game’s embrace of woke ideology and diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI).
This source also informed That Park Place that the company did indeed have discussions beforehand about how heavy it would embrace woke ideology. As shown in the game’s final product it does not appear that dissenting voices were able to bring any reason to those wanting to insert the woke ideology. And now it appears executives want to bury their heads in the sand.
If what Moriarty and his source claim are true, Concord is an even more epic disaster than originally imagined and appears to point to massive incompetence and managerial malpractice at Sony and PlayStation.
What do you make of this rumor?
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