Sony’s latest endeavour into live service games with Concord is shaping up to be a huge disaster for it, as the game is not being able to rise in popularity even days after its release.
The game follows the footsteps of the massively successful game Helldivers 2, but with a twist, and that twist is the fall in popularity of the game with no hopes of it getting recognition anytime soon.
Concord Destroys Sony’s Hopes and Ambitions
Concord had been in development for 8 years before releasing, and with millions of dollars spent to back up the development process, the game was expected to do really well in the market, and it was anticipated to rock the world of live service games, which sadly did not turn out as expected.
The game was released on August 23, 2024, and until now has managed to sell an estimated 25,000 units only, which is not enough to maintain the game.
Concord also got a poor response on Steam, with a peak of only 697 concurrent players at the start, which eventually fell down to just 100 a week later.
Venturing into live-service games has always been a tricky endeavour, and new developers should tread lightly in that territory. Reiterating the same, media research analyst, Rhys Elliott said:
Pivoting to live services is a high-risk, high-reward venture, and the risk is heightening to levels that might not be worth it for many AAA console/PC publishers that aren’t already active in the space.
The game’s fate hangs loose at the moment with nothing but a sea of uncertainty ahead as it sails into lands unknown.
Concord’s Failure Was Set In Stone
Its losing relevance is largely due to the poor marketing that was done before and even after the release of the game, which resulted in many people being unaware of the game.
To top the marketing failure, the game is also not a free-to-play title and is currently available for $39.99, an amount not many players were okay with spending on a failing live-service game.
The live-service market is a highly competitive space since there are way too many titles with very little, which sets them apart from one another. In such a highly saturated market, games need to really stand out and be distinguished among similar titles by stressing on the parts that set them apart.
It failed in all of these parameters, which eventually resulted in a poor response from the community. The game also did not open to very satisfactory reviews from the critics; it got a mixed response, which further implicated the average nature of the game.
Concord will get its first seasonal update, including a new hero and a fresh marketplace, enabling microtransactions on many cosmetics in the game, including many exciting skins. Nevertheless, the game’s future still hangs loose, as Sony will only have more difficulty from here on in continuing to maintain the game.
What do you think about Concord’s future? Let us know in the comments below.
