He last May 23rd from 2023 it was announced ‘Concord‘, the new competitive proposal from PlayStation Studios. The game was being developed Firewalk Studiosone of the most recent acquisitions. A year later (a little more, actually), the game saw the light of day. ‘Concord’ was released on PlayStation and PC, where it has been available for exactly 14 days. Why? Because the game has been cancelled and withdrawn. Here are the reasons.
Games as a service. Let’s start at the beginning. Some time ago Sony confirmed its plans to bet heavily on games as a service. Precisely for that reason bought Bungie, creators of the original ‘Halo’ and of ‘Destiny 2‘, one of the most popular GaaS (Games as a Service). Games as a service are, in essence, games that are updated periodically in order to achieve constant monetization. Some obvious examples are ‘Fortnite’, ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Pokémon GO’.
Many of today’s most profitable games are games as a service. Well, PlayStation I intended to launch 12 GaaS for obvious reasonsThe math is simple: more games, more revenue. In theory, of course. It was an ambitious plan, so much so that it had to reduce the figure from 12 to sixOne of those games designed to attract players and generate income on a sustained basis over time was ‘Concord’, the so-called “Overwatch for PlayStation.”
What happened to ‘Concord’? That it has made some decisions that have unleashed a series of catastrophic misfortunes. Starting with the PSN account, continuing with the price and ending with the genre, the truth is that ‘Concord’ did not have the necessary ingredients to work today. The open beta already anticipated this: 2,500 simultaneous playersBut let’s take it step by step.
PlayStation Network. PlayStation started by making the same decision that dealt a fatal blow to ‘Helldivers 2’: requiring users to link their PlayStation Network account. The reason, PlayStation claimed, was the way cross-play works, but that left out all PC users who do not have or do not want a PlayStation Network ID and all countries where PSN is not available.
‘Concord’ | Image: Vida Extra
A genre in declineOn the other hand, it was a game that had been in development for eight years. What game was the bomb eight years ago and what genre was the one that was in fashion? Indeed, ‘Overwatch’ and the hero shooter. Now, in 2024, this genre is not exactly the most popular. Except for ‘Valorant’, the hero shooter are in decline and that’s why everyone is waiting for ‘Deadlock’, the proposal of hero shooter and Valve’s MOBA. ‘Concord’ has arrived late and without a novel proposal to a genre that is in decline.
The clearest and most recent example we have is ‘xDefiant’, the shooter Ubisoft’s latest. Although it is a shooter of a more classic cut, the title is framed within the hero shooter while it has agents with special abilities that, ideally, have to work together to achieve a goal. After a huge initial boom, Recent reports They suggest that the game is not going through its best moment and is on the ropes.
Paid. This has undoubtedly been the biggest obstacle in the launch of ‘Concord’. Removing ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Rainbow Six: Siege’ from the equation, all competitive games are free. ‘Warzone’, ‘Overwatch 2’, the future ‘Delta Force’, ‘Valorant’, ‘Counter-Strike 2’, ‘Paladins’, ‘Apex Legends’… all free and monetized based on micropayments. ‘Concord’, however, was launched with a price tag of 40 euros.
That, having been launched after ‘Black Myth Wukong’, ‘Star Wars: Outlaws’, with ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’ just around the corner and with a tough (and free) rival like ‘Overwatch 2‘, has been lethal. Not only that, but being a paid online game on PlayStation means an additional outlay: that of PlayStation Plus. On PC it makes no difference, but on PlayStation playing a paid game online requires a subscription. It’s a hoop that not all players are willing to jump through.
‘Concord’ gameplay | Image: 3DJuegos
In short, ‘Concord’ has arrived late to a genre that is in decline with a proposal that is not bad, but that “does not stand out enough to justify its business model” (3DJuegos said) based on a payment of 40 euros plus the subscription on PlayStation.
Print money. That’s what games as a service don’t do. This modality isn’t bad per se, just ask ‘League of Legends’ and ‘Valorant’. They are free games that those who want cosmetics, dances and emotes pay for and those who don’t, don’t. A game being a service doesn’t mean it generates revenue from day one. It has to offer something different or, at the very least, attractive enough to compete against the titans of the industry. That hasn’t been the case.
Imagen | PlayStation
On Xataka | I’ve played the last two big AAA games in the cloud. I wouldn’t trade it for anything
