
It’s a sign of the times: live service shooter Concord took an enormous eight years to develop. The tidbit was confirmed on X (or Twitter) by lead character designer Jon Weisnewski. He wrote: “Today Firewalk Studios launched Concord. The game has been in development for around eight years and I’ve been there for almost five of them. We don’t get a lot of Launch Days in our careers so today is special for a ton of reasons. Oblige me some good vibes today.”
One thing perhaps pointing out here is that eight years ago, in 2016, Blizzard had just released Overwatch, which quickly became one of the biggest games in the world.
Still, eight years obviously sounds like a long time, but it’s worth noting that the title was likely little more than a concept for the first phase of its development. The developer then had to deal with the disruption of COVID and lockdowns, before eventually signing a deal with Sony, getting acquired, and launching the game. It’s out now in Early Access, with the full release scheduled to follow tomorrow, on 23rd August.
Are you planning to play Concord this week? Do you have any interest in this shooter at all? Choose your hero in the comments section below.
Will you be buying Concord? (1,659 votes)
- Yes, I pre-ordered it
- I might, but I'm waiting for reviews
- Nah, I'm not interested
[source x.com]
Comments 53
My graphic novel has been in the works for 7... Feeling much better about it now 😅
I wish Newsk and the team all the best with this one - the keyboard warriors have been overly negative over a game that is at the forefront of Sony's much-maligned live service push, making it an easy target. The beta showed it has excellent FPS mechanics/bones and I hope they build a solid community.
Hopefully it can fins it's audience. Even if it's mainly on PC.
Gotta stay positive in this negative world of doom and gloom
Man almost a decade spent on this? That's kinda sad with a dev cycle that long I don't see Firewalk lasting long when this inevitably bombs
sorry to say but from me playing both Betas time would have been better spent on something else.
its not terrible its just not anything particularly good, different, new or interesting.
its average
Perfection takes time
Honestly, it feels like it.
I genuinely feels like game that was created in time when Overwatch and GotG started to become huge. Problem is that by the time Firewalk was done with development, this genre became so crowded...
8 YEARS!?
THEY MAKE GRAND THEFT AUTO GAMES IN THAT TIME FRAME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
This utterly inspired dogpoop took them 8 freaking years to make!? They couldn't have that commitment for Factions 2??
Sony... I'm begging you, what are you doing oh my gooodd
No wonder Sony doesn’t make it F2P. But the customers don’t care how much it costed to develop, they pay what it is worth it to them.
i hope it succeeds; the naysayers most likely don’t even play multiplayer games and are just hating. aside from the bad character designs , and mid maps, something still clicked with me in the beta so i’m giving it a chance . i’m starving for new multiplayers .
@Specky To be fair, Grand Theft Auto games have 1000s of people working on them.
After what happened w/ a big name IP like Suicide Squad they can not be feeling too good this week. It will probably make more money than the "Borderlands" movie but I don't think that took 8 years to make. Tough time to be in game development.
8 years.
So this has been in the works since freaking 2016.
…that’s kinda sad.
Titbit is a great word, unlike tidbit. And 8 years for this games development is such a non-story. There's so many external factors to why it took that length of time that have nothing to do with development that its not right to say 'Concord was in development for 8 years'. It's like saying about a couple wanting for years to have children that the wife was pregnant for 8 years.
@Frmknst I mean, that hero shooter genre is currently flooded with games that even have huge advantages over Concord.
They are either established (Overwatch 2)
free-to-play (Overwatch 2, Valorant, Apex Legends and Marvel Rivals in december)
based on popular IP (Marvel Rivals in december)
And on PC, Deadlock from Valve is coming (but that's PC specific)
Not to mention ***** of other hero shooter games that were born and died during 8 long years of Concord's development.
@Frmknst there’s too many of those sorts of games?
That’s 8 years too many
If Sony wants to give it a fighting chance, they should add some popular characters from their franchises and promote it better. The negative reaction is too strong for it to establish a core audience for the game to eventually become a success. It doesn't matter how good it may turn out to be. Its initial reception will make or break it.
I have zero interest in this game but let me say something positive about it, there's good talented developers working on it and I hope the people it appeals to enjoy it, but Sony got a mountain to climb with this one and I hope they are ready for it.
So there’s one of the issues with long development cycles — by the time the game is finished, the original concepts can be completely outdated.
Back in 2016 hero shooters and Guardians of the Galaxy were all the rage…
Side stepping all the negativity around the game itself, 8 years is just too long and it's not the only game to take that long. An entire career in AAA game development results in 5 games, lessons learned between releases take an entire console generation to be implemented. As much as AI is maligned I really can't see how the AAA continues without it.
Even though I've got zero interest in these types of games, I have to feel for the developers here. They're surely aware of how much their game is getting ridiculed right now, and how little hope they have for any sort of success. Must be incredibly discouraging.
They just need to market it more to further reach out to the modern audience! I’m sure that will work haha.
@SeanOhOgain At your not George R R Martin
I don't hate this game nor i don't want it to fail either. But 8 fricking years in development and they can't even design a single character that looks memorable / easy to remember and interesting to play. I'm sorry but WTF are they doing in 8 years?
For games like this especially a new IP, good character design that gave big visual impact and oozes personality is one if not the most important key to attract players. If you can't get it right with the design then a lot of people wouldn't interested to play the game let alone care enough to check the story or gameplay. First impression is very crucial and i think Concord already failed that test.
Take example from Street Fighter, one if not the most popular fighting games in gaming history. The poster boy, Ryu, designed as a muscular Japanese guy wearing white karate gi, red bandana, and barefoot. Some people probably gonna say his design is too simple. But that's the point, not just that makes Ryu very easy to remember but also the design fit with his personality as a 'shotokan' martial artist who's very straight and discipline with his training because he wants to get stronger and better. Even people who doesn't play video games recognized Ryu immediately and what franchise he came from. Heck, female characters like Chun Li not just she looks attractive but her designed is very easy to remember with her blue qipao, spiked bracelets, and high boots. Anyone can recognized Chun Li just from her blue qipao alone. If your game have memorable character design then you don't need to do a lot to attract people to try your game.
Funny how Firewalk has former Bungie devs which Bungie understand how to designed a character with visual impact like Master Chief & Cortana. But here in Concord there's no character that looks memorable like that. I feel they made a big mistake when they design their characters for "modern audiences"...Oh well.
Ouch. 8 years is a long time for what is there with Concord. Sure there were definitely things that happened in that 8 years that hampered development on many games (Covid obviously being a big one) but I there isn't nearly enough here to justify how long it took.
I mean there's no campaign or co-op of any sort. Only PVP multiplayer and it's not like it's a gigantic MMO or something either. It's a small arena-based hero shooter.
It's a real shame. The gameplay is there. There is fun to be had in Concord but there just isn't enough meat on the bone and what is there just isn't unique enough to really survive in the competitive market they are entering. I wish them luck and hope that Firewalk gets another shot after Concord. They got talent but I think they were just barking up the wrong tree here.
@BeerIsAwesome Thanks for the info, appreciate it. Now you're giving me "New Mutant" vibes, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I'll watch Borderlands when I can for free b/c it's what I do. Not surprised it was finished long before release, that seems to be a thing. He says as he waits for Kraven. 😂
No wonder it has dated guardians of the galaxy vibes.
@Czar_Khastik something that has failed with this 1.
If there were at least a 10-15 hour exciting single-player campaign alongside a multiplayer mode, many more people, including me would likely sign up. But as it stands, in this form, it will be dead within a few months. I hope I'll be wrong.
I'm a software developer myself, so I feel sorry for them, but it should have been clear by the third or fourth year of development that live service games are becoming increasingly disliked (since a ton of them have been made, without any unique concept), and they should have at least started thinking about a short campaign to make it more "sellable"
Removed - inappropriate
I guess all that hard work failed when they decided to panda to a certain group of gamers.
Sad really.
Was it a rocky or smooth period? That's the important thing. Borderlands movie was also in development for 3 years which is too long for that crap
Such a ridicous investment. Sony has put too many out of touch idiots in positions they shouldn't be in. I get it, corporations are in it to make money and do so with max potential returns.
However, if you don't at least sprinkle people into the corporate pyramid that actually enjoy gaming and keep an ear to the player base you get the losses Sony is going to continue to face with Destiny, Concord, factions, and any other bad decision we still haven't heard of, beyond effectively ghosting your fan base for an entire generation thus far.
How development of this generic project was allowed to continue, and so late in the game for such a Saturated genre and make the decision to charge $40 is proof enough that there are real problems at sony and it extends far beyond Jim Ryans legacy.
@Czar_Khastik not in this case 😁 I know your comment was sarcastic
Strange, I'd love to blame Jim Ryan for his misguided live-service direction...but this puts it smack in the middle of Shawn Layden's tenure. However, being 'in development' can mean a lot of different things. In concept, exploring direction options, you name it. Kind of an odd statement all things considered.
There seems to be this narrative that the game is only doomed to fail because it "panders to a modern audience". Have we really reached these levels of delusion and stupidity?
If the game is going to fail (which it looks like), it's because it's a paid title in a crowded genre where the standard is free to play, that no one asked for, with fine but generic looking gameplay, and because its characters just look like a bland GotG copy.
Just like with the success of Black Myth: Wukong, all that other tripe has nothing to do with it.
@BeerIsAwesome " but since I was never really a fan of the franchise, I'm not best placed to pass judgement. "
I'm more of the opposite mindset, people w/o prior knowledge and expectations are a better judge of content than fans of the material. People who don't like things just b/c they don't match up w/ the source material "to their liking" are the worst judges.
Actually, those are the 2nd worst people, people who don't like things w/o seeing it first "b/c reasons" are the worst people.😂
8 years to develop and it will likely be dead within a year of release. Seems like a waste of time to me.
Firewalk Studios was formed in 2018 according to their own website so I think this dude is just confused
@naruball Exactly this! It may look like is just a few negative people from this site bashing the game but all their YouTube videos are in the negatives and that's not counting all the negative videos of people covering the game.
They need to change something whether is your suggestion of adding characters from PlayStation or changing the marketing strategy but if they just try to ride it out like Suicide Squad then Suicide Squad is what they will get.
8 year In development....uh huh....4 of them where him sketching drawings in his bedroom
Another Duke Nukem Forever fail then.
At least Duke Nukem was fun.
So they literally saw Overwatch in 2016 and decided to do the same thing…
And that's the best they could do?! OMG...
Just not a fan of live service games or hero PvP shooter's there's so many hero shooters.... I feel Sony personally has neglected it's single player fan base too long and needs to make a real return to it hopefully they have many things coming
Oh. My. Gawd.
How do you spend 8 years only to end up with this? How many times was development restarted from scratch in that time? And that explains why it feels like a game from 10 years ago. Because it is. It's practically a PS4 launch window title.
@Czar_Khastik "Perfection takes time"
If you had to put a number on the amount of time perfection takes, where would you put it? 10, 12 years?
@KundaliniRising333 @Xbox_Dashboard Sony didn't own Firewalk until 2023. It's not Layden's problem it's Jim's. Firewalk is actually only 6 years old, so the game started 2 years before Firewalk itself formed. Sometime around Overwatch someone got the idea that "I want to make the same game and make money!" 2 years later someone formed Firewalk to realize it. 5 years after that Jim Ryan looks and decides "this thing is the future, we need to own this!", and one year later we see it revealed to be.....a copy of Overwatch. That could have launched on WiiU. This is aaaallll Jim.
Wow that's kinda bad they really missed the mark I think 2021 was probably there best shot at a launch
LOL
Trend chasing is dangerous when games can take entire console lifecycles to develop now.
8 years….. and I’m way more excited to play newly announced Faaast Penguin next month over this game… lol…
Wow, 8 years, and no one ever spoke up about the terrible art design
About 8 years too long, by the looks of it.
@WhiteRabbit and drawing it too! Out this winter so I bet the race with Concord 😅
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