Sony president on Concord’s historic failure – ”we are still in the process of learning”

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As a lifelong PlayStation fanatic who has seen my fair share of game launches both successful and disastrous, I find myself intrigued by Sony’s resilience and determination to learn from their past mistakes, particularly with Concord. While it’s easy to point fingers and say that they should go back to what worked before, I appreciate the boldness in their approach to double down on multiplayer games.

The exclusive shooter game Concord from PlayStation, known as one of the largest flops in video game history, was shut down just 14 days after release and led to the closure of Firewalk Studios. Following this massive setback for the gaming company, Sony acknowledged the issue during their recent financial update.

During a question-and-answer session following the financial briefing at Sony, President, COO, and Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki addressed the setback with Concord, while remaining optimistic about the company’s commitment to live-service multiplayer in the future.

Learning from Concord’s

During the financial call, Totoki acknowledged the setback with their latest multiplayer intellectual property. Contrary to what some might expect – a return to the successful formula of single-player titles – Sony is instead committed to pushing further into the development of additional multiplayer games, including the forthcoming Marathon.

At present, the Sony president stated that they are continuing their education on the subject. Essentially, when it comes to fresh intellectual property, the outcome remains unknown until it’s attempted. Therefore, for our assessment, we require numerous checkpoints, such as user testing or internal review, along with deciding the appropriate timing for these checkpoints. Once determined, we should implement these checkpoints earlier in the process than we have done so far.

The Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Sony stated that Concord experienced “cannibalization,” as it was introduced during a surge of other multiplayer games and shortly following their own game Helldivers 2. To prevent such competition in the future, Sony plans to space out the releases of its multiplayer titles for better chances at success.

Moving ahead, we aim to choose the best windows for both our self-produced and third-party titles. Our goal is to select appropriate windows that allow us to launch these titles on our own platform without causing competition (cannibalization), thereby maximizing our success in title launches. That’s all there is to it.

More multiplayer from PlayStation

Currently, Sony is working on multiple multiplayer games simultaneously. In addition to Bungie’s Marathon, they have several upcoming projects under wraps as part of their commitment to expanding their live-service offerings, showing no signs of slowing down.

Additionally, Sony continues to make a strong effort in the realm of solo games. In 2025, we can expect the release of Ghost of Yotei, along with timed exclusives such as Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Marvel’s Wolverine. It is also rumored that new single-player games are being developed at Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and other studios.

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2024-11-10 16:11