After the aborted launch at the beginning of September, Sony decided to close permanently Treaty and also closes developer Firewalk Studios. They’re also shutting down mobile developer Neon Koi as they reevaluate their approach to mobile gaming and canceling the studio’s “mobile action game.”
Taking the unusual step of self-publishing an internal email about the business decisions – to be honest, they would have just been leaked, so this is much neater – Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst said:
“After much consideration, we have decided that the best path forward is a permanent sunset [Concord] and close the studio. I would like to thank everyone at Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.
“The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that is constantly evolving, and unfortunately we did not achieve our goals with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to improve our live service capabilities to achieve future growth in this area.
“I know none of this is easy news to hear, especially with colleagues and friends leaving SIE. Both decisions have been seriously considered and ultimately we believe that they are the right ones to strengthen the organization. Neon Koi and Firewalk have been home to many talented individuals, and where possible we will endeavor to find a place for some of those affected within our global community of studios.”
You can read the full statement here.
Firewalk also had a public farewelltook to Twitter to tell the story of the studio’s and the game’s development. In it, they reveal that after founding the studio in 2018, they didn’t really grow and start full production on the game until 2022 – a two-year turnaround from that point is actually quite respectable. They also underwent the always difficult integration process after their acquisition by Sony.
“We took some risks along the way,” they wrote, “by combining aspects of card battlers and fighting games with first-person shooters – and while some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t turn out as we’d hoped, the idea remained putting new things into the world is crucial to moving the medium forward. The talent at Firewalk and the level of individual craftsmanship is truly world class, and teams within Sony Interactive Entertainment and across the industry will be fortunate to work with them. Please contact Recruiting at PlayStation with any questions and thank all the teams, partners and fans who have supported us along the way.”
We certainly share that sentiment for both Firewalk and Neon Koi, which have seen dismal results in the gaming industry in recent years. Hopefully people can get back on their feet as soon as possible.
Concord will go down as one of the biggest entertainment flops of all time, reportedly costing hundreds of millions of dollars to produce – including Sony’s acquisition of Firewalk midway through development. Despite the ambition to compete with the likes of Overwatch or Valorant, the game barely got off the starting blocks when it launched in August. With a price tag of £35 rather than free to play, it attracted a number of concurrent players up to 697 players on Steam and barely scraped three digits onto the PC after the first few days.
After a few weeks, Sony made the decision to withdraw the game from sale, suspend online service and issue refunds to all players, while giving Firewalk time to “explore options” for a possible return. This was widely expected to be a pivot to free-to-play or a subscriber tie-in for PlayStation Plus, but Sony has decided that writing off the game (and the potential tax benefits it brings) is the better way financially.
In our Concord review we scored it an 8/10 and were admittedly saddened to see the ax fall so quickly.
Source: Sony