Director Steps Down After $400 Million Concord Disaster

Concord might go down as one of the biggest gaming disasters in recent memory. In terms of financial loss, I cannot think of anything else that comes close. There have been plenty of games in the past that were shut down mid-production, costing studios millions. However, never have we seen a game of this caliber launch only to shut down a few weeks later. There are a number of reasons why this game did not work. Publicity for this title was negative from the start. At the forefront were obviously the horrible character designs. I do not know what they were thinking. It is clear that they wanted to be inclusive, but nothing about it worked.

Then, there was the fact that this gameplay style was not popular anymore. Concord spent eight years in production, and a lot has changed during that time. While titles like Valorant continue to be popular, entering the live service market in 2024 is difficult. The competition is too high. Even if you create a good game, it will be difficult to succeed. You have to stand out above everyone and create something never seen before. Sadly, Concord was never going to be like that. The game was doomed to fail from the beginning. Internally, we are receiving reports that the title suffered from a toxic positivity problem.

On a recent podcast, one host revealed, “I spoke extensively with someone who worked on Concord, and it’s so much worse than you think. It was internally referred to as “The Future of PlayStation” with Star Wars-like potential, and a dev culture of “toxic positivity” halted any negative feedback. Making it cost $400m.”

The Concord $400 Million Disaster

This was also confirmed by a Kotaku writer who stated, “I can corroborate the part about toxic positivity. Some sources I’ve spoken with blamed a head in the sand mentality carried over from the studio’s Bungie roots. A sense the game would come together because the team was too good to fail.

Now, by this point, we know that this title cost millions to produce. It is claimed that the game costs $200 million. However, the game was in such bad shape close to the end that it needed more work. Sony then bought the studio for an undisclosed amount and pushed an additional $200 million into the game just to get it ready for release. This means that development cost a total of $400 million. At least half of that was paid directly by Sony last year when they bought the studio. On top of that, we need to remember that Sony likely paid hundreds of millions for the studio that only had one IP. Overall, this could be at least a half-billion loss for PlayStation.

Sony had high hopes for this title. They likely wanted a big live service title and thought buying a near-completed title would be better than making one from the ground up. They should have probably trusted their internal talent more. I do not know how large publishers like Microsoft and Sony keep fumbling live service releases. Microsoft tried to release see of thieves and Red Fall. Both were disasters. They had to spend 70 billion to get their hands on Warzone and World of Warcraft. For Sony, things are much worse.

The Concord Fall.

Right now, it is unclear what will happen to Firewall Studio. Since this was their only release, they do not have any other work to do. I don’t know if they are still working on the title behind the scenes. It has been rumored that they might rerelease it as a free-to-play game. Hopefully, they will also get rid of those terrible designs. Kotaku reports, “that developers at Firewalk Studios have been in limbo about their future as they await Sony’s decision about what comes next for Concord and the team.”

There is, however, one immediate change, and that comes from the director of the studio, who is stepping down. Kotaku continued with their article by stating, “Whatever ends up happening, game director Ryan Ellis will not be at the helm. Formerly at Bungie where he served as creative director on Destiny 2, Ellis left in 2017 to lead development on what would eventually become Concord. He told staff at Firewalk last week that he would be stepping down from his game director role and move into a support role instead, according to three sources familiar with the change.”

One developer at the studio said, “Ryan deeply believed in that project and bringing players together through the joy in it,” He felt Ellis had poured a great deal of himself into the game, leading to a ton of stress. “Regardless of there being things that could have been done differently throughout development…he’s a good human, and full of heart.”

Conclusion

On a personal note, this was always going to happen. You cannot fumble a release this bad and expect to keep your leadership job. While he will remain at the studio for now, someone else will be taking over. I am uncertain if this studio will shut down. It feels like Sony is too stubborn to let it go. Thus, I believe they are still working on something behind the scenes. Even if they clean up the game, make it free to play, and release better character designs, it is likely too late for this title. We have seen games in the past make a comeback. However, those are usually titles that had massive hype and failed to deliver.

Elder Scrolls Online was a disaster at launch. It was boring and empty. However, they recovered years later, and now it is a great game. It is worth pointing out that tens of thousands of fans played it at launch. Thus, it was easy for them to come back. No Man Sky is another disaster that turned great. However, once again, it had massive interest, and thousands were playing it at launch. Concord does not have this hype to recover from, and thus, it is likely the end for them.