Hero-Shooter that we’ve seen before, and before, and before…
Concord was a recent release in the hero-shooter genre, developed by Firewalk Studios,
published by Sony Interactive, that was a microcosm of the Triple-A Game Industries
internalized creative cannibalization. A record setter of failure, Concord was a game no one
asked for and fewer people played, failing to break a high of seven hundred concurrent players
on steam after official simultaneous pc and PS5 release on August 24 2024.
While it may seem a harsh summation, Concord was doomed to fail, attempting to break into the
already oversaturated subgenre of hero-shooters, Concord was a trend chaser four years too
late. Failing to learn the lessons of its contemporary predecessors, along the lines of Battleborn
or Lawbreakers, Cliff Blazinski’s forgettable attempt to trend-chase that sunk BossKey
productions; Concord hit every branch on the tree after being pushed from its nest.
“Concord was a game no one asked for and fewer people played…”
Launching at a 39.99 usd price point, one would think this a low barrier for entry, considering
Sony Interactive’s adoption and continued push for establishing the increased standard price of
69.99 usd, until one considers that every single competitor in the hero shooter genre has altered
course or launched with a free-to-play model. Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, Valorant, just to
name a few of the most prominent in the genre, when you try to compete with free, your barrier
to entry is climbing a 90 degree cliff face in a race against an elevator.
The f2p model stands on a few foundational pillars: Gameplay, Style, and Substance. You can’t
retain an audience if your game isn’t fun, Concord was, from what few firsthand sources I could
inquire, quite fun, the gameplay was robust and felt good, which in hindsight is a shame
considering how few people were able to fully engage in it. Style is where Concord fell short, the
game was ugly, and while the semi-realistic yet simultaneously cartoonish/modern
grunge-space aesthetic most obviously inspired by the Guardians of the Galaxy films, but misssed
comparable to something akin to Journey to the Savage Planet, assuredly has its own fan base,
Concord suffered from it’s garish, hodgepodge of discordant color schemes and extremely
variable physicality of its character design and presentation. Its pre-launch trailer presenting a
cinematic narrative/character focus was a misstep all its own, but many of its characters felt like
a soulless cross between several contemporaries, seemingly determined by dart board
selection or by committee. All to say, the game’s style choice was anything but, there was no
tonal synchronicity, and when the core spending retention cycle of the style of game Concord
wanted to be is made entirely in cosmetic microtransactions, the aesthetics of your core cast
and their unlockables cannot be dull or aesthetically offensive.
Substance is a misnomer in this genre because at its core, hero shooters are hollow facades,
the aim is to create a tight enough gameplay loop and flashy enough aesthetics that you are
distracted from the fact that the core of the genres gameplay relies solely on appropriating the
fun of an fps and the insidious social toxicity of a moba. Concords attempts to build rich worlds,
and plucky, personable characters fell unfortunately short, in its utter forgetability, the effort
wasted in the impossible to retain attention of this sub-genres primary demographic.
Concord was announced that it would be taken offline September 3rd, servers shutting down
September 6th. Notable, if for no other reason than as a study in sociological inanity amongst
the gaming community, Playstation users began a trend of desperation. In an attempt to
complete as many matches as they possibly could pursuing this defunct games platinum
completion trophy before shut down, a dedicated few players subverted the core premise of the
game and proceeded to launch their characters to their deaths to conclude matches more quickly, in a mass auto-defenestration and cordless bungee exercise, an appropriately hilarious
69 players (as of last note) successfully achieved their platinum completion mark before the
servers were taken offline.
With an estimated net loss between 100-200 million dollars, and an unprecedented mass refund
to all who purchased the game, Concord was tragically a failure across every conceivable
metric. Director Ryan Ellis has stepped down from his position in Firewalk, and the writing on
the wall for the one game studio implies that much like recent “staff optimization” lay-offs at
Bungie, Firewalk may soon face similar consolidation. Personally I wish every staff member the
best of luck, wherever they end up.
Concord serves as a blatant warning, writing on the wall for the future of the industry stating
firmly “There was a game here, It’s gone now.” That the effort of pursuing the perpetual income
machine of a fully served market, like the hero-shooter genre, is a waste of time and money, that
maybe innovation by investing in the profound and the unique is a better use of resources than
a soulless mimic that was out of date before its development began. If this message can be
conveyed, Concord might just have served a purpose.
