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In a practically unprecedented move, Concord, a game that was meant to be the next step in PlayStation’s live service push was shut down a mere two weeks after it launched. Game sales matter for every game, but concurrent player numbers only matter for multiplayer games. Which is what Concord was, and all concurrent player counts pointed to the fact that no one was playing Concord, which of course meant not enough people had bought in. Right out of the gate, it couldn’t even crack 700 players globally on Steam alone, and was a financial failure. Now a report from Kotaku claims the team at Firewalk Studios not only remain “in limbo” while Sony decides what to do next, and that Concord’s game director Ryan Ellis has stepped down from his role, moving into a support role. One of the sources Kotaku spoke to, when speaking about Ellis and how hard he worked on Concord said “Ryan deeply believed in that project and bringing players together through the joy in it. Regardless of there being things that could have been done differently throughout development…he’s a good human, and full of heart.” The sentiment around the studio, as the report puts it, is “pessimistic” on Concord’s return. The report also adds that members of the team are being asked to work on pitches for game projects not-Concord, which the report identifies as “completely different.” It further adds that staff are speculating that Firewalk’s future will be that of a support studio for other PlayStation Studios titles, though of course there are also those who fear the worst. That many, if not the entire team which the report says is between 150-170 people, will be laid off. Some have even left the studio fearing the worst, it adds, while many others, similarly to Sony, are left undecided on what to do for now. An insightful report that potentially reveals a layer of the internal story around Concord. After a reportedly eight years in development it seems reasonable to think that the process was slowed in part due to a difficulty with where to go next the whole way up to and, seemingly, just beyond launch. For what it’s worth, Concord did impress players to a certain degree. It failed less because it was a bad game, and more because it wasn’t good enough to make an impact in an FPS market where free-to-play games rule the day. Firewalk clearly houses talented developers, and with any luck they won’t be laid off, but given another chance. Source – [Kotaku] The post Firewalk Studios Is Reportedly “In Limbo” Following Concord’s Shut Down While Sony Decides What To Do, Game Director Ryan Ellis Has Stepped Down appeared first on PlayStation Universe.

Source: https://www.psu.com/news/firewalk-studi ... pped-down/