Concord, Sony’s latest venture into the live-service gaming space has reportedly sold just 25,000 copies across PS5 and PC since its launch on August 23rd.
In a recent article, IGN spoke with several video game industry analysts on why the game has failed.
One Analyst, SIme Carless who runs the Gamediscover.co newsletter has estimated that Concord has sold just 10,000 copies on Steam and about 15,000 copies on PS5. That was as of August 28th, five days after the game launched.
Pretty much all of the analysts interviewed by IGN point to a couple of reasons why Concord has failed. The game had a price barrier for entry. Concord was sold for £35/$40, meaning players had to pay to play the game. This made the game unappealing in the eyes of players who are already spoilt for choice with the wealth of free-to-play hero shooters on the marker.
Another reason for Concord not doing so well is the lack of marketing by Sony. Not enough people knew about the game or were aware that it even existed it seems.
I haven’t played Concord myself yet as I am just not interested in PvP games. But by all accounts, it is pretty fun but just doesn’t really offer anything more than its competition. And it costs money so you can’t just download it and jump in to give it a try.
Fun or not, Concord seems to be an unmitigated failure for Sony. The game was reportedly in development for about seven years. And no doubt there has been a lot of time and money invested in the game.
Players are reporting long queue times to get into matches as the playerbase dwindles. Can Sony and Firewalk turn Concord’s fortunes around? Offering it as a free-to-play game might be a good start.
