Well, if there was any doubt before, it's gone now: Concord is officially, fully, "permanently" dead as Sony has announced it's closing Firewalk Studios and sunsetting its failed hero shooter for good.
As revealed in an internal email from SIE CEO Hermen Hulst and published on the PlayStation Blog, both Firewalk and Neon Koi, the latter of which had been working on a "mobile action game," have been shuttered.
Concord was shockingly pulled offline and taken off of store shelves after just two weeks back in September, and at the time PlayStation said it was working to "determine the best path ahead." A little earlier this month, there were a few backend Steam updates for Concord that offered fans some hope that it would resurface in some form, but alas, PlayStation has now fully dashed those hopes in a definitive announcement.
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- With Concord in the rearview, Halo Infinite dev is glad it's still kicking "in a climate where games can be shut down with little notice"
"Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September ... certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline," Hulst said. "We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options.
"After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication."
It's unclear if the studio closures are resulting in any redundancies at Sony, but Hulst said the company "will work to find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible."
As for the future of Sony's live-service efforts, Hulst said 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. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area."
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