Industry

Concord: PlayStation’s $400 Million Gamble Gone Wrong?

PlayStation’s first-person shooter Concord, which was recently delisted after just two weeks on sale, reportedly cost a staggering $400 million to develop.

According to a recent episode of the Sacred Symbols podcast, this massive budget was dedicated to what Sony had referred to internally as “the future of PlayStation.” The game was expected to set a new standard for the brand, but the outcome was far from what Sony had anticipated.

How Much Did Concord Really Cost?

The podcast host, a former IGN journalist Colin Moriarty, revealed insider information after being contacted by someone who worked on Concord. They confirmed the immense costs and the challenges the project faced during development.

Interestingly, by the time the game entered its Alpha stage in the first quarter of 2023, about $200 million had already been spent. This was long before Sony even purchased the developer, Firewalk Studios, which was previously owned by ProbablyMonsters.

At this stage, the game was in such poor condition that Sony felt the need to invest an additional $200 million just to get it to a state of “minimum viability product.” This is the point where a product is just good enough to release but still far from being polished.

The extra funds were primarily spent on outsourcing significant portions of the game’s development to other studios to meet deadlines. Two major components—player onboarding and monetization systems—hadn’t even been started before this point, which added to the urgency. This leads to further delays and costs.

As a result, Concord ended up being Sony’s biggest budgeted game to date, surpassing other high-profile releases like Spider-Man 2 ($300 million) and The Last of Us Part II ($220 million).

Unfortunately, Concord also became Sony’s biggest financial failure, earning only around $1 million in gross revenue before being taken down.

What Went Wrong with Concord’s Development?

The game’s failure has been linked to several factors. The source tells Moriarty that internally Concord was heavily championed by key figures, who referred to it as a “Star Wars-like project” that had the potential to grow into a franchise spanning multiple media formats just like they begin with Amazon’s “Secret Levels” anthology.

In fact, the game was reportedly a passion project for Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios. People within the company referred to it as “Hulst’s baby,” as he was a major champion of the game. He strongly believed in its potential and pushed hard for its success.

However, this “toxic positivity” within the development team reportedly led to the downfall of Concord. People weren’t encouraged to speak up about the problems, whether it was with the character designs or gameplay mechanics. It was like nobody wanted to admit that something was wrong because everyone was so confident it would all work out.

This “everything’s fine” attitude ended up being a big part of the problem. Even though there were clear signs the game needed more work, the team kept pushing forward without making the necessary changes. That mindset definitely contributed to Concord not reaching its full potential.

I spoke extensively with someone who worked on Concord, and it’s so much worse than you think.

It was internally referred to as “The Future of PlayStation” with Star Wars-like potential, and a dev culture of “toxic positivity” halted any negative feedback.

Making it cost $400m. pic.twitter.com/F5O0oy4gaQ

— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024

How Badly Did Concord Perform?

Earlier this month, Sony officially announced that Concord would be removed from sale and offered refunds to the players who purchased the game. Reports indicated that the game had sold as few as 25,000 copies across both PS5 and PC since its release on August 23.

Despite its ambitious vision and budget, the game failed to resonate with players and peaked at only 697 on Steam which ended with only 90 players afterward.

This massive loss makes Concord Sony’s most expensive project to date and also its biggest financial failure in terms of development costs.