We have a new major leak that suggests Sony has something planned for this year after all. But you might not like it.
Writing for Dealabs, Billbil-kun has revealed that Sony will be revealing Concord in the upcoming State of Play.
For those who need a refresher, Sony first announced Concord last May. We already know that it is a live service online multiplayer shooter with a science fiction theme. Firewalk Studios shared this description:
“Concord is a bringing together of peoples. It’s the power of games to build connection and inspire social play. The Firewalk team is driven by the type of exciting, unexpected moments and shared experiences that multiplayer games create.
Every time you log on is the beginning of a new adventure and every match is an opportunity for a new story. It’s these ideals that define Concord, its unique universe of vibrant worlds, and its rich cast of colorful characters.”
Firewalk Studios is comprised of people who had worked on Destiny. It was originally founded by game studio incubator ProbablyMonsters. Sony acquired the rights to publish Concord in 2021, and bought Firewalk itself last year.
Getting back to Billbil-kun’s rumor, he claims that Sony will be showing off gameplay in this upcoming reveal. So we should get a more solid idea of how Concord will actually look like when we’re playing it.
Billbil-kun also claims that Concord is inspired by the Marvel universe. So this may be something where every character has different powers and abilities, befitting their roles in a team, in exactly the same way that team shooters like Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Valorant are set up.
Whether Concord is officially revealed or launches this year or next doesn’t change how the title will be facing a lot of challenges. If not the very first PlayStation 5 live service title, it will certainly be one of the most high profile.
Sony had successfully sold their gamers on the appeal of single player offline games, mainly sprawling open world titles. They rode that wave of success on the PlayStation 4, but they should have made moves to diversify earlier. Now, many of those fans are sick of playing the same open world games. But at the same time, they are hugely skeptical of live service games, and Sony has themselves to blame for that.
Microsoft may have had their challenges, but because they didn’t waver, they were able to successfully transition Sea of Thieves and Halo Infinite to the active and popular live service titles that they are now. Sony will now have to do that same work that Microsoft did, and their success is not guaranteed on that end.
