Sony recently decided to close Firewalk Studios, the creators of the game Concord, and the game itself is now gone forever.
In a statement, Sony explained, “The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title.” They plan to learn from this and improve their future online services. Meanwhile, another studio, Neon Koi, which was working on an action game, is also closing down. Neon Koi, once known as Savage Game Studios, joined Sony in 2022.
Bloomberg mentions that 210 employees are affected by these shutdowns, with 172 from Firewalk and 38 from Neon Koi losing their jobs.
Interestingly, last month saw the director of Concord, Ryan Ellis, taking a step back into a support role. During this time, some employees were busy brainstorming new ideas, while others braced for the worst by updating their portfolios. Earlier in the year, Sony had already gone through layoffs.
Concord was released for PS5 and PC on August 23 but was pulled offline by September 6 because not many people were playing or buying it. Some fans were hoping for the game to return in a different way, like becoming free-to-play, but Sony has dashed those hopes by confirming its permanent closure. The gaming industry is seeing a lot of similar sad events, with more layoffs and studio closings happening.
Sometimes, we fans just wish for a little more stability and fewer surprises in the gaming world.
