During the latest earnings call, Sony President Hiroki Totoki discussed for the first time the failure of Concord . The game caused significant losses and led to the closure of Firewalk Studios. The experience, according to the company, served as an important learning experience for future projects in the live service gaming market.
Totoki emphasized the importance of a rigorous review process, noting that failure to detect issues during development was one of the reasons for the game's cancellation. He explained that Sony needs to implement more review "gates," such as user testing and internal reviews, to identify flaws and adjust projects before release. He also emphasized the need to review the timing of these gates, noting that, in projects like Concord , these reviews should have been conducted much earlier.
“For us, for our reflection, we need many gates, including user testing or internal evaluations, and also the timing of those gates,” Totoki said.
Sony is in the learning phase of dealing with the live service gaming segment and is looking to define more rigorous processes to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Sony and the impact of Concord's failure on gaming strategy
Concord's launch was a significant investment of $200 million. However, the game didn't achieve the expected success, leading to its servers being shut down just weeks after launch. Rumor has it that the development environment suffered from an exaggerated level of positivity, making it difficult to spot issues and limiting critical feedback. Despite this, Totoki believes that the lessons learned from this project will contribute to improving Sony's strategy for future releases.
“Also, we have a compartmentalized organization, so crossing the boundaries of these divisions, both in terms of development and sales, I think it could have been much smoother,” Totoki said.
Comparison with the success of Helldivers 2
Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's vice president of finance, also shared her thoughts on the contrast between Concord and another successful Helldivers 2.
"We launched two live service games this year. Helldivers 2 was a huge success, while Concord was eventually shut down. We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both," Hayakawa commented.
Concord and the Secret Level series
Even with Concord's demise, the title will remain as part of the Secret Level series on Amazon Prime. This way, Sony will be able to partially capitalize on its investment in the project. Totoki also emphasized the need to maximize the performance of each title released, avoiding internal competition between games released close together.
“We want to be able to select the right and optimal window for launches on our platform, without cannibalization, to maximize our performance,” Totoki explained.
In conclusion, Hayakawa reinforced that Sony intends to disseminate the lessons learned from Concord and Helldivers 2 , benefiting all of the company's studios across both single-player and live service projects. The company seeks to develop a balanced portfolio that combines the predictable success of established IPs with the risky growth of new live titles.
