Concord’s launch weekend has come and gone. While most gamers and press expected poor performance, the results have turned out so poorly that they are of historical significance.
We had reported on the SteamDB player numbers coming out of the Early Access beta and also the open beta. We will also point out here that analytics firm GameInsights did a data analysis of PlayStation 5 players within these beta periods. They did not give numbers, but revealed that Concord lost players on the console from Early Access to open beta.
Today, SteamDB data reveals that the game launched last August 23, 2024 with 585 players, and peaked at 697 players. The player numbers then steadily dipped, peaking at 473 players on the 24th, and 402 players on the 25th. To make the comparison, the Early Access beta, which was available to everyone who preordered the game, and everyone with a PlayStation Plus subscription, peaked at 1,124 players. The open beta that came a week later peaked at 2,388 players.
Some gamers and influencers have taken to comparisons to other games that flopped this year, or that came from Sony’s competitors. These may make good fodder for fans inclined to console war, or who want to make fun of games they dislike. But we must not forget the lessons of the last two years of layoffs in the video game industry. Whether you like a game or a studio, there are people on the other side who made that game, and work on that studio. There is no getting around the facts of this title’s poor performance, but we should be talking about this in terms of how the people at management takes risks, and the people under them pay for their mistakes.
The comparison we will make to another game is Babylon’s Fall, published in 2022 by Square Enix. This was PlatinumGames’ first attempt at making a live service game, in stark contrast to Concord being made by veterans at Bungie and Activision who helped make Destiny. SteamDB data reveals that Babylon’s Fall peaked at 1,188 players at the time and date of its launch, in March 2022. By May of that year, player numbers completely flatlined. Babylon’s Fall was also a record breaking loss for Square Enix. Its failure was unusual even among live service games, that are known to peter out when fans lose interest, but only after a decent amount of time when the game company would have been able to make a tidy profit, if not more.
Truth be told, we are unlikely to determine which are the worst ever performing games of all time, at least publicly. The industry will keep those numbers they have close to their chest. It’s also possible that there are even bigger failures that we will never know about, simply because no one recorded those numbers for the sake of preservation.
Concord is in the unfortunate position to release in a time where there is this publicly available data for us to observe and record for posterity. Sony won’t share their PlayStation 5 player and buyer numbers, but clearly, if they did have data proving its success, they would be talking it up.
PlatinumGames was fortunate to have other projects lined up while making Babylon’s Fall. Bayonetta 3, which sold one million units worldwide, ended up as the most successful title in its franchise. We can only wish that Firewalk Studios will come out of this with a similarly favorable future. But Sony’s intentions and plans are vague in this respect.
The company just had a major reorganization of PlayStation last February, leading to 900 layoffs. Last month, they announced a reorganization of Bungie, with layoffs of over 200 employees. Bungie had favorable clauses in their contract with Sony that allowed them some degree of independence, before they missed their targets. Firewalk Studios, as far as we know, does not even have that benefit.
The future is certainly uncertain for Concord and its studio, Firewalk. We don’t know if there are enough players to justify going forward with the planned schedule of videos and content for the game. Perhaps Sony could take Firewalk to work with other upcoming live service projects. Maybe they could even be assigned to work with their former colleagues at Destiny 2 or Marathon. As for now, Sony management has not let their feelings on this be known. We wish the best for Firewalk Studios and their employees.
