Marvel Rivals' Closed Beta Is Putting Concord's Player Numbers into Perspective

Great for fans of this type of game. Not my cup of tea 🙂

No one wanted this game or asked for it

When the first trailer aired I thought it was going to be a animated movie or a Guardians of Galaxy type game not a Overwatch game which again no one wanted another.

"Concord is a brand-new franchise with a fresh set of characters"

I tried the Concord beta and I dispute the claim that it has characters. ;D

Just watching that Marvel Rivals gameplay video was enough to convince me to steer clear. But these F2P games aren’t my bag anyway so I’m a poor judge. It looks like it would have been fun 15 years ago on PS3 though. 😄

Kinda funny to read all the comments saying "nobody wants this / asked for this", like there are zero Marvel fans out there.

In fact Marvel's fanbase is big enough to attract enough players to any F2P game. And if the game itself is decent, many of those fans will play and stay.

It also got needless hate that spread across the internet, so people were less likely to give it a chance. I didn't even get an invite to Marvel Rivals to try it, but I enjoyed playing Concord with my wife very much. It also has a lot different going for it once you actually play it and feels unique. I bet marketing is a part too since Concord's focus felt PS5 and Rivals was announced for PC before consoles.

I wouldn't call Concord's characters "fresh"
They are so derivative, that they are just outright boring and uninteresting.

Which is pretty huge problem when one of your selling point is weekly story cutscenes.

Well it's going to be free and it's Marvel so it was never a doubt it wasn't going to do huge numbers.

I can confirm that Concord is the worst game which I didn't play

We all know the MVC2 re-release is going to much better than this.

We didn't need this sort of perspective to know Concord isn't putting up great numbers.

The question is, why did it even need to be referenced in this article, when the subject is ostensibly Marvel Rivals and not the other game? Just comes across as sticking the boot in.

No shade, but I am kinda worried for fairgame$, people have only seen that trailer and are already saying is DOA and won't give
it a chance to show what it has to offer. this over abundance of negativity needs to calm down!

@themightyant I mean this is just stating facts. The two games are similar and in their beta period’s one destroyed the other.

@WhiteRabbit Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well. May I interest you in a round of Hong Kong 97?

@Oram77 the only thing that game could have going for it is how much of an extraction shooter it is and what it does unique. That’s one of the few genres of mp shooter that is still open for new comers that can break on through. Yes you have mainstays like hunt and vigor on console but none of those are juggernauts. Tarkov isn’t on console. Hell even COD wasn’t able to crack that genre. Think that game stands a better chance then concord.

I'm fully convinced of Concord's incoming failure as much as most people, but I don't think comparing it to Marvel Rivals is fair at all. I think a more interesting comparison is comparing Concord's beta performance with how Valve's unannounced hero shooter Deadlock did in closed testing over the same weekend. A game that hasn't even been publicly revealed yet had more players than Concord's open beta, which is crazy to me.

As someone that’s played a fair bit of overwatch 2, the reason I downloaded it in the first place was the fact it was f2p. I wouldn’t even have looked at it were it a £40 title. Similarly with marvel rivals, if that’s a f2p title, I’ll definitely download it and give it a go.

Warzone, Fortnite, valorant, apex, overwatch and many other PvP centric games have set an expectation for a lot of gamers, particularly the casuals, that access should be free. You absolutely have to be nailing everything - character design, gameplay, progression etc if you’re going to charge for access and want to have success in the market.

Concord by all accounts seems “fine” at best which I don’t think is enough for it to be competitive.

@Fishmasterflex96 Yeah I get what you saying, but I do wish for people to wait and see actual gameplay before calling something DOA, obviously you can skeptical about upcoming game but still...

I dont typically like hero shooters but marvel being free to play and having characters i know and like makes me at least want to try that one.

Concord has a nearly palworld level of knockoff guardians of the galaxy characters. I can't see myself buying that at $40.

Now that Marathon has been changed to be another soulless Hero Shooter, I wish it was releasing this year, just for the mess of it all!

I have a feeling it'll end up being shelved after Bungie watching all the feedback Concord is getting.

@get2sammyb True.

It's not that there's no room for new competitors in the genre.

There's just no room for Concord, because it's a game almost nobody wants to play. Not even for free.

Concord might've been better suited to a Mass Effect style, single player sci-fi RPG; but given the fact that Destiny vets are developing it, it was likely always "destined" to be live service

@TrickyDicky99

Killing off your competition and being the market leader is a disaster?

Anyway if that worked as u say Xbox would be godly this gen instead of useless

I didn't realize Concord numbers had been that bad. I didn't think it looked too bad and had good pedigree behind it. Guess I was wrong on that one

I hope this GaaS hell from Sony ends sooner. I don't want to go to PC, they need to back to its roots ASAP.

I play on PS5 because I love their singleplayer games, stop with this bs of GaaS everywhere.

Sony seems to have made bad decision after bad decision with Concord.

The state of play reveal was bad as didnt really show any gameplay and a lot of cinematics which initially gave off a different vibe of game then it was. In the same state of play they advertised Marvels Rivals a direct competitor.

Then decided to charge for the game again when most rival games are F2P.

In my opinion this isn't my type of game but I think Concord looks a lot better then Marvel rivals from the gameplay I have seen would of possibly given Concord a go if it was free. But most people will know Marvel Rivals will do quite well just off the Marvel name alone.

@themightyant would say it’s fair considering this is a PlayStation focused site and that the biggest point against concord is that it’s $40 vs rivals which is free to play. They aren’t being malicious with it, they are just stating factual numbers and good inferences on how Concord is gonna go if things don’t change with it.

@Oram77 some of the criticisms are fair. The live service genres are saturated and the vast majority of new life service games fail and seeing PlayStation in particular invest so much into them without having a clear roadmap for their core single player games with what’s coming added up to a lot of negative feelings.

@Sequel the vast majority of people think the game isn’t bad, it’s just that it doesn’t do anything special to set it apart from other competitors. On top of it charging $40 for it is a very bad look.

@Anke “ oh wow I'd forgotten about Fairgame$, surely that can't still be coming out can it? “

This GaaS area is becoming so over saturated I’ve been reading comments about Concord for a few days now and I thought Fairgame$ was the company developing Concord b/c everyone kept saying that it was going to die soon. And who names a game w/ a $ at the end, that’s just asking to be memed for a gatcha game. 🤑

But now I know, so thanks. Guess we’ll have to do this all over again though huh?😩

Well, there are more chances of a person finding a character they like in Marvel Rivals. Plus it looks less generic than Concord.

Anyways, my take on this whole GaaS thing is if Sony wants to do it they have to look into other genres.
EVO was a blast this last weekend, why not invest in a F2P live service fighting game since you already own the event?

This green guy in Concord is such a hideous meme. Take you goatee tendrils and get outta here

@bindiana

"....But most people will know Marvel Rivals will do quite well just off the Marvel name alone."

That is true... but remember that Avengers GaaS was a complete bomb. There are just too many looter/hero shooters trying to grab a piece of the pie. If there is anything we can point to here, it is corporate greed trying to squeeze more money out of a relatively small group of players.

WOW IT'S ALMOST LIKE MARVEL IS FAMOUS OR SOMETHING!!!

LOL

Let me talk about this breaking news with the 40 millions PlayStation Spider Man has sold and with the 700k units Returnal has sold ... the Marvel game looks as boring as Concord but at least it isn't ugly af.

I actually think it’s crazy that Sony is going all in on live service multiplayer and not using the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale IP.

Honestly, whilst I'm kinda sad that the known and safe IP is doing better than the new, original one I'm not surprised and I am glad the one with the fun and interesting art style is doing better than the one focussing on realism in it's rendering.

I'd not seen Fairgame$ before but looked it up after everyone mentioning it. Yeesh. The unabashed irony of a game with the sort of monetisation preaching about how the wealth is all being horded by the few? They're not wrong but in context it felt kinda gross.

@Ainu20 Because he needs clicks and has been getting them, bashing Concord on here has basically been in every article since the beta.

Marvel Rivals just needs to be decent and it’ll carve an audience. Concord needs to be great and it just isn’t.

Marvel’s Rivals and Valorant are making absolutely sure that Concord doesn’t stand a chance lmao

If the characters were more appealing they’d be doing much better.

@TrickyDicky99 If they fail good enough all those people can get fired never understood why people are happy something fails.

Im not a fan of hero shooters, but I had a good time with Concord playing it with my kids.

This is just another game that is receiving unwarranted hate and will do badly due to the weirdness of gamers.

The blind hate this game has received reminds me of what happened to Days Gone.

Also when it comes to content, many F2P titles offer 2 costumes for 40$ and lock their characters away.

Concord offers 16 characters and then roughly 10 costumes, 5 gear, 5 accessories, 10 gun skins, 30 gun charms, however many maps and they say all future content is free for 40$.

F2P has warped gamers.

The Concord trailer actually had me interested in the world until eventually it was revealed to be live service Overwatch nonsense! It made the characters seem to have more personality than they will actually have.

Perhaps we will all be wrong and it will be the next Helldivers 2, I will come in here and apologize but that's very unlikely unless they show something drastic or that there's more meat to the bones.

Marvel Rivals is basically overwatch but just not as good, concord is an arena shooter that doesnt bring anything new to the table. neither is going to top the big juggernauts in the compettive gaming scene

But which game is better/more fun to play?

@Anke It would take Dr. Strange to find that 1 universe that Farigame$ is a success in. And it's not this one.

@Ogbert " I'd not seen Fairgame$ before but looked it up after everyone mentioning it. Yeesh. "

Thanks, glad I wasn't alone. And I was about to go look it up but your description saved me the trouble.

@rjejr "And who names a game w/ a $ at the end"

Fairgame$ is developed by Haven Studio, a studio founded by Jade Raymond and a bunch of other ex-Ubisoft developers. The Creative Director for the game is an ex-watch dog 1 & 2 developer, so that will explain memey $ at the end of the name... Cause early 2010 meme culture is totally still hip with the kids... XD XD $?

@Victor_Meldrew hate is saying something is dead because it's popular to hate something. Especially not even trying it. And it was my opinion, so go ahead and chill.

I will put it to my perspective: both games, Marvel Rivals and Concord, are still not my cup of tea no matter how many people playing it.

Yeah....I think Sony should give Concord out for PS+.

Ain't no way it will survive 6 months.

Concord has a cool feature:

The player owns Concord, Concord does not own the player. Therefore, no Battle Pass. Of course, that may well be the reason they're charging for all 6 'seasons' planned (ballpark figure).

I wonder if SONY will ever regret pissing off a core consumer like me, having been around since gen 1 I think it is embarrassing to see their decision making and the consequences they wreak.

I am also a little embarrassed by the journalists salesmen pushing addiction. They used to be better and on the consumer's side in a much more believable way.

Cool @get2sammyb but Concord is currently the 15th most pre-ordered game on the PlayStation Store for the UK. If we look at Steam DB, Concord's beta numbers would rank it as the 4th most played arena shooter by concurrent players. Currently, The Finals holds the top spot among arena shooters with 10k players. Your points don't fully capture the genre's dynamics. There's clearly more data from PlayStation that we haven't seen. Many arena shooters on Steam, including games like Splitgate, Halo Infinite, and Quake, consistently have far fewer players than Concord's beta. Halo, for instance, has around 900-1,400 players. Look it up. Arena shooters are niche, but Concord is more than capable of finding an audience. I expect it to perform much better on PlayStation than on PC, especially as updates and weekly content continue to nurture the community, assuming FireWalk listens to feedback.

I'm not saying it’ll be as massive as Overwatch, but it could certainly compete with The Finals' CCU and similar games in the genre. This could be similar to how fighting games, Deep Rock Galactic, or The Forest slowly build and foster communities. Additionally, Sony has numerous levers to pull, from free weekends to PSN marketing, eSports, and more. It's premature to dismiss Concord based on low Steam numbers alone. In fact, the drop-off rate for Concord was 47% (2.4k to 1.1k), while Rivals dropped from 52k to 14k, a 73% decrease. This suggests Concord is more engaging.

It's clear that Concord will find a user base, whether small or medium, and matches and lobbies will load fine. Many people in the beta enjoyed it and found games quickly. The real question is, how patient is Sony? Not including a season pass/battle pass token in the pre-order was odd, and now we know the game has no battle pass, adopting a more traditional a la carte sales approach. This is quite different in today’s market. As a platform holder, Sony arguably has the most data on live games. We'll see how it plays out, but it's a shame to see the hardcore zeitgeist dunk on it for these numbers, which, while dismal, reflect a beta of a new IP. Sort of like a Rainbow Siz Siege, Among Us or a No Man's Sky. Which all are priced games too that grew into the success they are today.

@AverageGamer Thanks for the explanation, that actually makes sense now. Still think it's just asking for trouble but now at least if the game bombs they can blame it on the $. 😂

@Victor_Meldrew I actually did state a fact. With an example. Seems like you're in your feelings with dumb little comments and, again, hate. No one cares about your hate. You're really original.