Key Takeaways
- The Concord failed to attract attention due to its ordinary appearance.
- The game’s genre and console exclusivity worked against the game’s success.
- Without a free-to-play model, Concord’s reach and longevity were limited.
Ah, poor Concords… Well, we didn’t really know, but just 10 days after PlayStation released its latest team-based hero shooter, the game is going offline. Released on August 23rd, the game was pulled just one day after Labor Day by Sony.
It’s a bit surprising how quickly PlayStation has evolved, but there were signs that the game was having serious problems almost immediately after launch. In fact, there are very strong indications that Concord was in trouble even before launch, and video game developers would be well advised to take this into consideration going forward when it officially goes offline on September 6th.
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The hero genre started with Overwatch in 2013 and soon everyone tried to make a copy. Games backed by big studios like Apex Legends and Valorant tried to establish themselves. Many smaller games tried to cash in on the hype with releases like Knockout City, but more recently the soon-to-be-released Concord seems destined to be a huge flop. If the game wasn’t copying the hero style exactly, it was implementing it with a “specialist” class, as recent iterations of Battlefield and Call of Duty have done. This leads to the fact that the beta version of Marvel Rivals has finally been released. After a lot of expectations and a large number of streamers playing, the reaction seems to be… not very good. The game has the appeal of an IP that boasts a large number of iconic characters from the Marvel Universe, such as Venom and Star-Lord. All of the maps are famous locations from some of the biggest comics in Marvel’s history. One of the features that makes this game significantly different from other hero shooters is the
1 Concord has a very generic look and feel
The game didn’t get much attention when it was announced.
Sony/Pocket-lint
When Concord was first revealed in a cinematic trailer, it looked interesting. But it wasn’t until I saw the actual gameplay that I thought it was interesting. The character designs, the idea of ​​what’s at stake in the game world; it all just looked so familiar. Even the look and feel of the weapons the characters use in this hero-based shooter; nothing particularly different from other games in the genre. Kudos to the developers for trying to carve out a unique market for themselves by including a ton of lore, but people have to be interested in the game before the lore can stick.
2 Decreasing demand for Concord-type games
This work meets two criteria for a genre that is no longer popular.
Sony/Pocket-lint
Whenever a hero- or team-based shooter like Concord is released, it is always compared to its predecessor. In this case, Concord has long been compared to Overwatch, the reigning champion in the field. The problem is that even Overwatch has noticed a significant decline in interest in its corner of the video game world. Look no further than the decline in players using Overwatch 2. PlayStation was hoping to slip their latest release into a category that is currently seeing a decline in its fanbase.
When the game goes offline on September 6th, users will be able to get refunds for Concord even if they wouldn’t be eligible under normal circumstances.
This was the first blow to Concord’s development. The second blow is that there is a clear backlash against Games as a Service, hero-based or otherwise. People don’t like online-only stuff. They don’t like the idea of ​​paying in-game. When gamers hear that a title is a GaaS title, they get a backlash even before it’s released. And there’s no doubt there would have been a lot of backlash if the game had only been live for 10 days before being taken offline.
3 Available exclusively on PS5 and PC
Console exclusivity was a bad idea in itself
I understand Sony’s desire to move on from the PS4. The PlayStation 5 has been out since fall 2020. Developers don’t want to make several different versions of the same game on the same platform. But the adoption rate for the PS5 is still not ideal. People still buy PS4s when they can and play a ton of games on the previous generation console. Sony should have been brave and focused on the PS4 and PS5.
Similarly, Sony shouldn’t have had a monopoly on the Concord console. I understand why they did it – they wanted to have a monopoly on it. But as Sony slowly branches out and no longer shuts out Microsoft, this is exactly the kind of game they should have gotten in front of as many people as possible. Sony didn’t seem to want to address cross-platform compatibility, but that’s just one of their many failings.
4 Concord won’t have PS+ at launch
The perfect game to offer to subscribers
It was a pretty big mistake not to offer Concord on PS+ from the start, to expose it to as many people as possible. Ever since the title was first announced, there’s been talk in the gaming community that it should eventually appear on PlayStation’s subscription service. Why not do it at launch? Especially when you’re already limiting who can play it through generation and console exclusivity.
This is another reason why Concord should have been on Xbox. Putting this game on both PS+ and GamePass could at least extend its lifespan. It seems unlikely that it would be shortened. Any concerns that Sony would lose money by doing something like this fade away considering they are now offering refunds to all buyers.
5 Concord wasn’t free to play.
The pros of free play outweigh the cons in this game
Sony/Pocket-lint
Sure, there are big drawbacks to making a game free to play, but there’s a reason why so many GaaS, team-based, hero-based shooters have been moving in that direction recently: games that are already tapping into a shrinking market are more likely to survive if they’re games that anyone can easily pick up and try.
Selling Concord for $40 meant the developers didn’t have to worry as much about microtransactions, which is a good thing. But charging $40 for this kind of game just doesn’t cut it anymore. Never was that more evident than when the next game in the genre, Marvel Rivals, was released as free-to-play. It was a huge failure from the start.
