Sony announced the closure of Firewalk Studios yesterday. A decision that highlights how high the financial and human costs of the failed Concord live service game actually were. Concord’s development was reportedly initially budgeted at around $200 million. This significant investment included sea Kotaku but neither the rights to the Concord IP nor the purchase of Firewalk Studios itself, which Sony acquired just last year.
Reports from September already indicated that the final total costs would then be almost 400 million dollars climbed.
Tough competition and disappointing response to Concord
With high expectations for the new sci-fi shooter project, Sony continued to invest in development, but the response to the first trailers and beta tests in the summer was largely negative. Concord has struggled to hold its own in a highly competitive live service market dominated by many established and often free shooters. Analysts estimate that the game only had about 25.000 Mal was sold. Given the extremely low sales and lack of player base, Sony ultimately decided to take the game offline in September immediately after launch. The closure of Firewalk Studios has now been officially confirmed.
Firewalk is signing off one last time.
Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
– Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024
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Human Dimension of Closure and Firewalks Vision
Around 150-170 employees lost their jobs with the dissolution of Firewalk Studios. Firewalk was originally founded to create an innovative multiplayer experience that combines various elements of card games and fighting games with the mechanics of a first-person shooter. Despite the failure, the studio emphasized in a final statement how important it is to bring innovative ideas into the gaming world in order to further develop and enrich the medium.
SIE co-CEO Hermen Hulst expressed his gratitude to the Firewalk team in a statement and acknowledged their dedication and creative efforts. Sony intends to use the lessons learned from Concord to improve its live service strategies and align future projects more closely with gamer expectations. Players and analysts will be watching to see whether Sony can successfully incorporate the lessons learned from the Concord debacle into future projects.
