Sony surprised players by announcing their recently released hero shooter, Concord, will go offline on Sept. 6.
Firewalk Studios says the choice is due to Concord not resonating with players as expected. This outcome isn’t too surprising given its all-time peak on Steam Charts was 660, with only 88 people playing at the time of posting. This falls in line with IGN’s sources, which estimated roughly 25,000 in sales.
However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.
Given Concord released on Aug. 23, 2024, meaning it will go offline at the two week mark, anyone who purchased Concord will be refunded. A detailed explanation of how this process will work can be found below.
While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.
Customers who purchased from other digital storefronts will also be refunded. More information about refunds from Steam and Epic can be found below:
Steam Store – Steam Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days. Steam will send confirmation of the refund once it has been processed.
Epic Games Store – Epic Games Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days and will contact each customer directly to confirm that the refund has been processed.
Other retailer refunds – For customers who have purchased a physical copy at a retailer location outside of PlayStation directly, please refer to the refund process of the retailer you purchased it from to obtain your refund.
Once refunded, players will no longer have access to the game.
While Concord‘s future is uncertain, it wouldn’t be too surprising if this move is a precursor to going free-to-play. This is typically the next step, with the most recent example being Foamstars.
Since Concord was designed without a Battle Pass system, a few months could be spent adding one, putting a bit more thought into microtransactions, along with giving players a big reason to ultimately give it a chance.
It’s also possible the project is scrapped, reworked/rebranded, and launched as a somewhat different experience. There are a lot of possibilities, and it will be interesting to see which direction Sony ultimately goes.
