Concord studio shuts down as Sony sunsets the troubled shooter

Firewalk Studios

Sony announced that it’s officially sunsetting Concord and closing its developer Firewalk Studios aft a disastrous motorboat that led to it taking nan crippled offline aft conscionable 2 weeks.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), which acquired Firewalk successful 2023, revealed successful an email sent retired to labor connected Tuesday that it’s shutting down nan studio, on pinch mobile developer Neon Koi, successful bid to “strengthen SIE’s Studio Business.” That intends 2 studios acquired by Sony complete nan past 2 years person been closed.

While CEO Hermen Hulst says that location was a batch to for illustration about Concord, it did not meet expectations, and could not compete successful nan PvP first-person shooter space, which is afloat of competitors for illustration Overwatch 2. Hulst added that Sony will “take nan lessons learned from Concord and use it to early projects. “We person spent sizeable clip these past fewer months exploring each our options,” he wrote. “After overmuch thought, we person wished nan champion way guardant is to permanently sunset nan crippled and adjacent nan studio. I want to convey each of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, imaginative tone and dedication.”

As for Neon Koi (previously known arsenic Savage Game Studios), which was reportedly working connected a “AAA mobile live-service action game” but had nary different announced projects, Hulst said that nan institution wants to activity connected games that “are in-line pinch PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and person nan imaginable to scope much players globally.” Hulst did uncover that Neon Koi was moving connected a mobile action game, but it won’t beryllium moving guardant pinch it.

Hulst added that SIE will activity to find caller placements wrong nan institution for impacted squad members.

“I cognize nary of this is easy news to hear, peculiarly pinch colleagues and friends departing SIE. Both decisions were fixed superior thought, and ultimately, we consciousness they are nan correct ones to fortify nan organization,” he wrote.

Concord had an infamously rocky launch to PlayStation 5 and PC successful August. At its highest connected motorboat day, it only had 697 concurrent players connected PC, according to SteamDB. Mediocre reviews and debased turnout led to Sony taking nan crippled offline aft conscionable 2 weeks. The plan, according to Firewalk Studios crippled head Ryan Ellis, was to “explore options” for nan game’s imaginable future. However, reports past period claimed that Ellis stepped down from nan studio. Employees astatine nan workplace were besides reportedly looking into pitches for caller projects.