Concord developer Firewalk Studios has been permanently closed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). This is according to an internal email from CEO Hermen Hulst.
“After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio,” Hulst said in the email to employees on Tuesday. “I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
After Concord was taken offline in September, SIE “spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options” for the shooter. “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,” he said. “We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live-service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
Firewalk Studios made a final statement on X (formerly Twitter), writing that it was “signing off one last time.”
“We took some risks along the way – marrying aspects of card battlers and fighting games with first-person-shooters – and although some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t land as we hoped, the idea of putting new things into the world is critical to pushing the medium forward,” the studio said. “The talent at Firewalk and the level of individual craft is truly world-class, and teams within Sony Interactive Entertainment and across the industry will be fortunate to work with them. […] Thank you to all the very many teams, partners and fans who supported us along the way.“
Hulst also announced that Neon Koi, another Sony-owned studio, will close. Formerly known as Savage Games and acquired by Sony in 2022, Neon Koi was working on a mobile action game for PlayStation. The closure of both studios is resulting in about 210 people losing their jobs, according to Bloomberg.
Concord is the only game made by developer Firewalk Studios and was a first-person hero shooter released for PC and PlayStation 5 on August 23, 2024. It was shut down just a mere 2 weeks later on September 6, 2024, with refunds sent out for every sold copy of the game. Reportedly, the title was in development for eight years before its release.
An IGN interview revealed that the lack of content and poor marketing are why analysts believe the title was only able to bring in a small audience, but the generic premise and failure to differentiate itself is what truly led to the shutdown.