Dev Behind PS5, PC Flop Concord Could Close as Director Steps Down

I hope some kind of documentary gets made of this from the perspective of the developers and Sony. It would be the only good thing to come from the whole debacle.

I know Sony would never allow it, but someone might find a way into the inner workings of Firewalk to interview the people involved in making it.

This is purely the consequence of whoever greenlit this project.
The game overall didn't seem broken or poorly made. It just wasn't a needed nor desired game by anyone. The marked is flooded with games of this genre and with that art style.
It should never have been approved.

I really hope Sony don't kill this game and are instead willing to give it a second chance at life, even if that's under a different name or with a reskin. Despite being an initial naysayer (I still hold that the writing, character and world design were painfully derivative and the scope of the game was too small for the asking price) what I played was was really fun and the game was super polished. This story is a worrying sign though.

Jesus effing christ I dont think I have ever seen a worse launch than this to the point where it's possibly getting the studio closed down.

Give them Last of Us Factions live service, it was almost finished, cancelled because Naughty Dog couldn't support a GaaS game, Firewalk certainly could though...

@johncalmc
The price point wasn't silly. Not everything has to be free-to-play and loaded with microtransactions.

Yeah but Hermen Hulst saw the game and loved it. Saw no red flags.

Absolutely amazing. Buy Bungie. Buy doomed spinoff from Bungie 1 year before they release a game obvious to all to be doomed. Kill game in 2 weeks. Kill studio. Kill half of Bungie too.

Jim and Herman somehow took a monopoly and managed to put it in danger. I think the average middle schooler would have run this video game company to greater success. They at least understand the product and the market.

@get2sammyb " He's currently CEO..."

Today.

Totoki didn't appoint himself chairman for courtside seats and free popcorn.

The only part of Firewalk that needs to be fired in my opinion is the art departement.

I wish publishers recycled (not close) entire studios when they flop this hard, just discreetly rename it and present it again as a new studio. Having teams that have already worked together and who are up to speed have way more value than a studio that's being created from scratch.

@get2sammyb to play devil’s advocate here, does Hulst have a track record green lighting unpopular games? This could be a case where the game lined up with his personal tastes as although Concord was far from popular it did have some fans. It is fair to say at one time or another every gamer has really enjoyed a game that the majority disliked or outright despised. It could be in this case the gamer liking the unpopular game was in a powerful position to fund said game. Just giving a different perspective before the gaming community gets the pitchforks and torches together to go after Hulst.

Hermen Hulst is the problem at Sony.

Now all eyes are on Fairgame$, which I'm sorry to say is going to be Concord 2.0, Hopefully after that Sony will see Live services is not the way to go anymore

Hulst seems to be at the centre of an awful lot of the dodgy decisions. Not old enough to be getting a ‘retirement’ though.

"Firewalk is one of Sony's most expensive studios on a per-head basis"

You got to be kidding me!? The person that should pay the price is obviously Hulst, the developers are fine but Hulst saw this game in all it's glory 6 years into development and not only wanted the game but the studio. If he cared even a little about taking responsibility he would take a massive pay cut (he won't, probably ask for a raise instead).

This is why a new studio needs to start with small or AA project and why Sony needs to embrace small-mid budget games again for their 1st party studio.

AAA games comes with a very big risk where a flop means lay-off or the studio got closed down. But with AA, the risk is smaller and can be minimized if the game didn't sold that well. Not to mention AA games usually has shorter development cycle than AAA.

And just like Bungie, i personally think Firewalk and Haven Studio is an unnecessary acquisition.

Anyway...

• Astro Bot: 60 bucks, AA budget, 3 years devs cycle with 60 people, GotY contender, and sold well.
  VS
• Concord: 40 bucks, AAA budget, 8 years devs cycle with 170 people, a catastrophic failure and became an internet joke & punching bag.

Won't someone please think of "the professor"

I'll bet a lot of people though "yikes, this is looking rough." While developing or supervising the game but for fear of being labeled bigots or whatever they had to keep their mouth shut. Now they're losing their jobs anyway.

And nothing of value was lost

Why cant they keep the engine and some of what is there like shooting mechanics (after all, it ran well didnt it), and use what they keep to create a decent single player shooter?

They could do the old marketing line of "we've learned from our mistakes".

From someone who has never played a hero shooter before, i played the beta and i dont really understand whats so wrong with the game? Played good, was polished, graphics seemed good, satisfying gunplay. Was it really all down to character design? Because that seems highly subjective, i didnt really have any big problems with the character design really. To be honest, with these types of games, i really dont care that much about character design. I mean, its rounds of team deathmatch, who cares about the characters? I guess a lot of people, but this much... i dont know, it all seemed a bit out of proportion.

My view on it, people dogpiled on it. It got bad publicity, and people who havent played it or havent even seen it just layed it on it with negativity. Thereby creating a whole air of negativity around it. The amount of hate it got was totally disproportional. I mean remember Gollum? Now thats a bad game. This must be the most polished and solid "bad" game in history. Cause there are some real sh*tgames out there. Remember the last of us clone on switch, or the god of war clone on xbox? Those were sh*tgames

Lots of people also commenting about people hating the "wokeness" of it all. What exactly in it do they dislike? If someone would care to explain. Is it the variety of ethnicities? Or that they listed the pronouns?

Also, a point about the game costing $40. The whole purpose was that the game wouldnt have any battle passes and everything would be added for free. Isnt that what everyone wanted? Like i saw people complaining all the time about these free to play games ruining the industry. Now someone tries it this way and they get sh*t on. I guess people want free games full of paid battle passes and microtransactions then, right? Dont complain if thats going to be the future then

Ps. I dont particulary care for the game, but i do find if very weird how things transpired and this became probably the most hated on and the worst launch of any game ever. Just dont get it, its a solid game. And if it really comes down to something subjective as so called "woke character design" than that to me is very worrying

@LogicStrikesAgain The problem was that everybody hated it. There was obviously an element of ‘anti-woke’ crap but it’s not like there was anybody really going to bat for it on the left either.

@LogicStrikesAgain we want to future to have he/she pronouns because that's the nature and even transgender people change sex from he to she or vice versa not whatever the agenda that these corporations want to feed us. We also want a future without multiplayer investments from companies known for single player like sony

@nessisonett What do you mean? Am i missing something? What does politics have to do with it? Is it because of the pronouns? Are you telling me thats really the biggest reason a solid game got hated on this much? Ive never seen a game hated on this much. Because of pronouns?

Im not playing stupid btw, im not from the US. I know "woke" is very big there. But if its not about the pronouns. What is so woke about the game? And if it is just about the pronouns, then wow. Harsh crowd

So much money spent on this.. I can't help wondering.. how many Knack sequels could this have bought?

@OthmaneAD You say we. But ive also heard many people ask Sony to come up with new IPs. Also heard people asking for something else than only single player narrative games because they were getting tired of sad dad walking sims

I hope if the rework doesn’t work out that Sony keeps them on to do something else and that they don’t lose their jobs. Also think if Marathon turns out to be a hit with so many coming from bungie them being a support team could maybe help. Sad for the rank and file who just worked on the game.

I blame Phil. He should have done better.

@cburg shut up and get it right….. it’s the series s

@LogicStrikesAgain and Sony should come up with multiplayer games and new ip, just make them good. They probably won’t but hopefully they take the right lessons from Concord’s failure and Helldivers 2 success. Make new multiplayer games with unique mechanics and unique experiences.

Ugh, guess it's time to put on our tinfoil hats because some people are trying to read some left/right agenda into this why this game flopped.
It's a well made, yet generic game that nobody asked for in an insanely oversaturated market.

I think Sony is to blame as it seems they (i.e. Hulst) commissioned this sort of game.

@tameshiyaku You think the game has gotten to be one of the, if not, the most hated game on the internet because its just generic?

Nah, people forget about generic games. The hate for this game is on a whole other level

@Fishmasterflex96 I agree. It just interests me from a sociologic standpoint where all the hate comes from. Its seems like a solid game, nothing special or anything. But it has become the most hated on game on the internet it seems. And frankly, i dont really get why. But hey, thats just me

Yeah, Firewalk is done. Unless Sony sees some value in a significantly scaled-back version of the studio being a support team for Bungie or Sucker Punch, there is no way Firewalk will survive this. Sony would have to be delusional beyond belief to pump more money into trying again with Concord or greenlighting another AAA project from them.

If I were at Haven, I'd be sh**ing myself right now.

@LogicStrikesAgain "I dont really understand whats so wrong with the game"

• Bland and forgettable characters design
  When comes to hero shooter or games that put characters in the front as one if not the biggest selling point to play the game, you need good and memorable characters design to attract people. You can say you don't care about the characters but many people care because they want to play as cool, attractive, and badass characters, not bland and ugly GotG rejects. And good character design also make your games looks pop out compare to the competition.
• Doesn't do anything new compare to the competitions
  Good graphics, polished, or satisfying gunplay alone are not enough. You need more that makes the game unique and interesting compare to the competitions. Without the unique factor, the game will end up like Concord. Like why would people spend 40 bucks for Concord if they can just play Overwatch or Apex who can do the same if not better but it's free and has better character design.
• Also, there was the political factor where Firewalk devs called out people who didn't play / dislike Concord as "talentless freak". Definitely a big PR blunder because that didn't help Concord sales.

"Also heard people asking for something else than only single player narrative games because they were getting tired of sad dad walking sims"

People are asking Sony for more single player variations like platforming, JRPG, survival horror, or something unique which we didn't see after Japan Studio got closed down.

@LogicStrikesAgain single player IP not multiplayer

@LogicStrikesAgain "hero shooter before, i played the beta and i dont really understand whats so wrong with the game?"

I think that's the point. Everyone else who was the market already have played other hero shooters that were better, more unique, more interesting, more free, or all of the above and have played them since 2016, and either burned or long ago or is still playing one of those. This offered no compelling reason to play it instead of what is potential players were already invested in. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad. It was a prawn diving head first into a crimson red ocean.

@-Sigma- Let's not forget that this is from the same man who greenlit multiple Horizon spin-offs, and a remaster of the first game.

@OthmaneAD I hear many people saying they wanted the Factions multiplayer that was cancelled. Also hear a lot of people telling Sony that if they wanna do multiplayer they should revive IPs like Killzone.

Look i get what ure saying. But you have to realize there are many people that would like to have multiplayer on PS. Having only single player would be very boring, atleast in my opinion.

People just didnt want Concord, and hey thats fine. Again, im not particulary a fan of it either. But i just find the amount of hate it gets so weird and disproportional. Thats all

@NEStalgia Honestly, thats a good point! I might just really not see the big deal, cause its not a world im familiar with

@LogicStrikesAgain people forget about mid tier games from mid tier companies. Sony had a stellar reputation. Hence when something with such a high budget, dev time and market push, from a studio they acquired after approving of this games development, all the good will and expectations turn sour. It happens all the time with any company sitting on the top

Probably about time they remaster it.

@PuppetMaster I appreciate the points given. I think @NEStalgia made a good point though. Im really not familiar with hero shooters, so i guess i really didnt compare it with any of those games. I still think the hate is disproportional though, i played the beta. Its a solid game. Again, lots of titles a lot worse have come out the past few years.

I must say though, having never played Overwatch and Apex legends, but obviously seen it around since you come across it everywhere. If character design is supposed to be so good or important in hero shooters, well colour me dumbfounded. All those free to play games including fortnite etc. have all the same cartoony unmemorable characters ever. Maybe im too old, i dunno, not gen Z over here

@LogicStrikesAgain think it was just a mixture of things adding up to a total ***** storm. The game itself was good, but it was one of the most trend chasing games in recent years. On top of it you have it coming from Sony which has been very quiet and hasn’t shown off anything new from their 1st party teams for a while, on top of a lot of other hero shooters close to launching that also play good but are free, on top of it having bad character design and its biggest “innovation” being weekly cutscenes which no one gives a ***** about.

@LogicStrikesAgain Fortnite is a little different. The skins make the player’s character vs Hero games like overwatch and Apex where part of the kit is the hero’s style.

@Fishmasterflex96 Fair points, i agree with all of it!

eh, i still liked the game . not because of any of its agendas though , but the gameplay and beta was solid

rip roka

Imagine those people that have this on their CV while looking for a new job: Character design of Concord !!!

Give them factions to work on. Or they might be become a Bungie support studio.

@2here2there Funny, i'm probably one of very few. Im not saying they're stellar, far from it. But i have no big problems with the character designs. Its been a while, and ive only played a bit of the beta. But i dont really remember a character which i disliked.
Except for the generic soldier with the assault rifle and the red Drax knockoff with the weirdly shaped head.

I must say though, i dont really care about the characters with these games. Its team deatchmatch. Closest ive played to this was CoD in the original Modern Warfare era. Didnt care what my character looked like then either

Edit: Im going to add something very controversial possibly. I just looked up the character roster of Overwatch on google images for the first time. And i think i like the Concord design better, LoL

[Pre-emptively opens umbrella for incoming sh*tstorm]

Just an absolute disaster.

@nitraM The Professor got schooled in video game 101, lessons have been learned lol

The fandom: “Give us new IP! We don’t want remasters!”

Also the fandom…

They are a super expensive team to run with where they are located and the people they have hired. Probably 25-30 million a year and based on last game could be 8 years out from anything new and no great anticipation on anything from them. Don’t see this one surviving and if they do its gonna be trimmed down and i would rebrand and name the studio

Firewalk likely would've been better off if Sony never bought them.

@KilloWertz Then the studio would definitely have been shut down rather than "maybe shut down or downscaled and people moved to other projects".

Their former owners shut down another studio they had a year ago.

@Tecinthebrain I've been arguing for some time that people keep blaming Ryan for things Hulst was in charge of like first party games.

However I can see that at one point Concord looked promising and then that failed to materialise in the final product.

I also think Concord was doomed by its own promo video to the point where it almost didn't matter what the game was like in the aftermath of that. It would have found an audience, if even a small one had half the internet not decided they hated the game based on a promo reel about the characters.

When half the internet decides your game is terrible because of a piece of promo footage it almost doesn't matter how good the game is or isn't. The reaction to the other game with the daft title was much less severe but you have to wonder if the Concord effect will be following it around like a bad smell.

Although ultimately the issues Suicide Squad showed with characters people may have actually heard of should have been a massive red flag to Sony. That also had a very bad promo reel that made the entire project seem pretty doomed, and it never really recovered.

Firewalk are done. Even if their next game was literally amazing, all people will have to read is .. “From the studio that brought you Concord” and it will crash and burn. Best case scenario is take the most accomplished and talented people from the studio, especially the ones that are sane (because reports suggested some crazy individuals are there) and move them to other studios and just close Firewalk down and move on.

I remember when SE took FF14 offline reworked it and brought it back.

It will likely be the best path forward for Concord. The mechanics were solid, and the gameplay loop was fine. They should add PvE content, a more defined story and revamp character designs.

This is a shame. By all accounts the devs made a very playable shooter mechanically, surely it was the people who green-lit (or dictated) something so generic that are the issue.

@Old-Red Get Noclip on it!

@ThorsHammer I have said the same thing before. It would be a total shame to completely shutter the studio and waste talent and resources. Maybe take the key people and create a new studio to finish Factions off, I feel the name Firewalk will forever be tainted by this failure.

Bungie: We make the best live service games ever - and we ALWAY SWILL......
New gamers: tumbleweeds
Sony: We'll pay twice market value... hell.. make it 3 times.

Bungie ex employees: We made the best live service games ever. And we can give you the magical beans...
All gamers: more tumbleweeds...
Sony: we'll buy you and throw ALL the money at you. We love beans.

UbiSoft: We made all the best games.... no really... we did...
Analysts/investors/gamers/execs/devs/the guy who walks his dog in the morning: looking nervously at the window...
Sony: Can't buy UbiSoft... but let's buy the next best thing... ex-UbiSoft....We only see the dollars... all da tumbleweed$

At what point did Sony take the "bring your children to work" thing a little too seriously? And what is it with all the tumbleweeds????

@get2sammyb but Sammy.... Hermen is cool... he's not like Jimbo... he's one of us. He's PS-branded Spencer (EUR-style with stripes!)... he will save the day.

@LogicStrikesAgain yes, it's a Sony first party, high profile and heavily promoted generic game that the community didn't ask for.

@Phelaidar It was greenlit 8 years ago.

The project itself is not the problem; the decisions, including art direction, along the way are. People kept saying there's no room for the genre but it's simply not true. A good example will be souls-like games. They are supposedly the niche genre but look at how well the good ones have sold. Not to mention all the classics that people are still playing from years ago.

There is ALWAYS room for fun and attractive games.

@LogicStrikesAgain The hate aimed more on Firewalk devs who disrespects and mocked people who dislike Concord as talentless freaks. If they didn't do that unnecessary called out, Concord wouldn't get much negative reactions.

@NomNom A reworked like FF 14 is pretty much making a new game. SE basically spent double the cost for FF 14 reworked. Sure the result was very positive and brought the budget back and more. But it only worked because it's Final Fantasy which has a big userbase.

Now for Concord, does Sony want to spend another $200+ million for a flop new IP OR they could used those money for making smaller and creative games like Astro Bot that already showed a critical success and sold well? I would do the later if my job is SIE president / CEO.

People don't want to admit it had something to do with politics, but it absolutely did. They tried to push an agenda too hard and it backfired.

25,000 sales is not because people didn’t want a bland shooter, it’s because they chose to boycott the game. And it seemed to happen very organically, which is even more interesting.

Those sales sent a message to Sony (and particularly Herman Hulst) and it’s important that they get the message loud and clear or they (and we) are in for more problems.

They not only tried to push an agenda but they also created very bland and ugly characters. An artist redesigned all of them just with subtle changes and it added so much depth and variety to the roster.

Overwatch is arguably ‘woke,’ but they don’t force it down your necks and its characters are not bland at all. Therefore it had success.

@Kienda They released a bad product onto the market. It doesn't matter how "good" or "solid" the core function (ie, gameplay) is as some keep reiterating. If you enter a saturated market at the wrong price point, long after the trend has settled, your product will sink. The ugly pound shop action figure character designs certainly didn't help, but not as central as I think you're suggesting.

As such, it failed financially and the company behind it, with no prior success behind them, will likely be folded up. They knew the stakes when they signed the deal with Sony. If it went the other way, I'm sure they all would have had some lovely bonuses headed their way.

This is how life goes when you're not camping on r/antiwork and there's hundreds of millions of other's money invested.