This is the worst-case scenario for Firewalk Studio: After the unsuccessful launch of hero shooter “Concord”, the US studio will close, Sony announced. Online shooter “Concorde” isn’t coming back – and remains with an unprecedentedly short lifespan of two weeks.
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After years of development, “Concorde” hit the market in late August. But no one wanted to play it: even at peak time, there were only a few hundred people online on Steam, which was a debacle for an online game of this size. Sony discontinued the game just two weeks after its launch.
Sonos Ace in the test: first-class over-ear headphones, perfect for Sonos fansNo restart of “Concorde”
However, there was still hope that Sony would give Firefly time to further develop the game and switch to a pure Free2Play model. Nothing will happen from this. “We have spent a lot of time over the last few months reviewing all of our options,” PlayStation CEO Herman Hulst wrote in an internal letterWhich was released by Sony.
“After careful consideration, we have decided that the best course of action is to permanently discontinue the game and close the studio,” Hulst writes. “I want to thank everyone at Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
competitive market
Hulst rightly notes in the letter that the market for such live service shooters is highly competitive: in addition to top dog “Fortnite,” Riot Games with “Valorant,” Blizzard with “Overwatch 2” and Valve with “Deadlock.” Are also fighting. Player’s time for this. Because such games take a lot of time, the target group usually does not actively pursue more than one or two titles. Amazon’s “Crucible” has already shown that it’s hard to keep up with the hero shooter, which was discontinued a few months after its release.
But the case of “Concord” and Firewalk Studios is even more notable – among other things, because Sony bought the studio just last year. The fact that a game with such a high profile and years of development could only be played for two weeks is nothing but an embarrassment for Sony.
In addition to Firewalk, Sony also wants to close Neon Koei Studio, which had offices in Berlin and Finland. Neon Koei was purchased by Sony in 2022 as Savage Game Studios and was intended to develop mobile spin-offs for Sony’s well-known brands, but no games were ever announced. according to bloomberg 210 people will lose their jobs as a result of the studio closure: 172 at Firewalk, 38 at Neon Koi.
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Sonos Ace in the test: first-class over-ear headphones, perfect for Sonos fans
