Can PS5, PC Shooter Concord Be Saved? | Push Square

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Concord is not a bad game, but if we’re being generous, it’s also not looking like a particularly successful one. Early indications suggest the title has flopped catastrophically on PC storefront Steam, and while it’s likely doing a lot better on PS5, it’s not going to be breaking records any time soon.

Sony, of course, will have expected differently. It signed on as the publisher of this project back in 2021, and eventually acquired developer Firewalk amid much excitement in 2023. At the time, bigwig Hermen Hulst said he was “impressed” by the studio’s ambition to connect players in “new and innovative ways” and promised the team would deliver something “truly special for gamers”.

Squad goals

While we’re satisfied with the overall quality of the sci-fi shooter’s gameplay, we pointed out a lack of originality in our 7/10 review. We think this is a totally fine online first-person shooter, but we’re not seeing the innovation that Hulst teased when his company decided to acquire the studio.

Still, a lot of money has been spent on this project, so is it salvageable? We all know it’s hard to shake the stench of failure once it latches on to a title, just ask the likes of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Marvel’s Avengers, both high-profile flops based on much bigger brands. But surely there’s something the developers can do?

Before we consider potential rescue strategies, it’s important to consider exactly what’s gone wrong for Concord, and that’s a complicated and multifaceted topic. The game appears to have found itself at the centre of several different controversies, all intertwining to create a perfect, formidable storm. Some of these issues can be attributed to the product itself; others are simply out of its hands.

Perhaps chief among them all is that this game has been seen as the symbol of Sony’s live service strategy, a direction for the platform holder which is proving controversial and has largely been rejected by enthusiasts. While Helldivers 2