Yesterday, we reported on some shockingly detailed, and now highly disputed rumors, about the production of Concord. Today, we have an interesting explanation for some details in that rumor, that is at least partly based on some very good and solid research.
Michael Bell is a YouTuber and writer for Bellular News. He made a new YouTube that explains ProbablyMonsters’ role in Concord’s development, and how it relates to recent rumors.
ProbablyMonsters is a video game company that doesn’t really do business in the same way as companies like Sony, Electronic Arts, or Konami. They specialize in game incubation programs, a way of making games that allows them to get professional consultation, and even funding, before it even gets officially greenlit or acquires a publisher.
The simple way to explain it is it’s like Steam Early Access. While the developers don’t show the game to the public yet, they can already find entities willing to spend money on it, and they can also get help from veterans. This is a way of making games that makes it easier for fresh graduates and newcomers to enter the industry, but it can also be used by established companies.
ProbablyMonsters’ business is not in publishing video games. Instead they help form these games and projects, with the hopes that they can sell them to other companies later.
Bell confirms that ProbablyMonsters got work started on Concord in 2016, two years before Firewalk Studios was founded. As we had hypothesized, it’s possible for the game to have gotten started before the studio, if it was being conceptualized and prototyped in an incubation program.
Now the key details here were what funding ProbablyMonsters received. Bell could not confirm how much they raised when they were founded, but he confirmed an $ 18 million seed in 2019, and most importantly, a $ 250 million round of fundraising in 2022. We know that ProbablyMonsters had other incubation projects than Concord, so that money went to more than that game.
As we reported, Sony announced their partnership with Firewalk in 2021, and started their own fundraising for Concord. Sony didn’t own Concord and Firewalk yet, but they helped Firewalk find other investors, and even get them their own building. Sony officially acquired Concord and Firewalk in April 2023, a month before the announced the title in a PlayStation Showcase.
Bell argues that part of that $ 400 million was the cost of buying Firewalk Studios itself. Since Firewalk was an incubation project, that would have also included the cost of increasing the number of their employees, and making them a bigger studio overall. He also makes an interesting argument for why Sony wanted to acquire in the first place.
Deviation Games was another studio making a live service game for Sony. They signed that deal in 2021, but a year later, their co-founder Jason Blundell left the studio. We would later learn that Deviation had layoffs in May 2023, the same month Sony revealed Concord. We reported a rumor that Deviation was closing because that live service exclusive was cancelled in March of this year. Deviation announced their closure two months after that.
Bell believes that Sony felt burned by the Deviation Games situation because they did not own the studio. We don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but Bell speculates Sony would have wanted to keep funding the game, regardless of what was happening at Deviation. If they owned the studio themselves, they could have intervened in a way that could have saved the project and the company.
If Bell’s assessment of this rumor is correct, then Sony got what they paid for. They managed to save Concord and Firewalk Studios. Unfortunately, they were not able to also make sure that Concord would be a successful or popular game. And so this has turned out to be an even worse situation then what happened with Deviation Games.
We are certain other reports will emerge soon that will set the record straight if Concord really did cost $ 400 million. When Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach tweeted that “$400 million is not the number I’ve heard,” he didn’t say he was told it was higher or lower. If Moriarty’s source reemerges, possibly talking to someone else now, or other sources chime in, we expect to form a consensus on these details eventually. Unless another leak in Sony airs out all of this dirty laundry.
In any case, we recommend Bell’s video on the subject highly. You can watch it below.
