Concord's Initial Development Deal Was $200 Million, But It Wound Up Costing Sony Much More - Report

ign.com:

Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million according to a report by Kotaku, offering a glimpse of how much it cost Sony to develop its disastrous live service game, which lasted just two weeks before being unceremoniously shuttered.

Kotaku's report, which cites two sources familiar with the agreement, says that the $200 million was not enough to fund Concord's entire development, nor did it include the purchase of the Concord IP rights or Firewalk Studios itself. Kotaku's number aligns with an earlier report saying that ProbablyMonsters — Firewalk's original parent company — raised $200 million in 2021.

Firewalk is signing off one last time.

Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
- Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…

Firewalk's goodbye post sheds additional light on its development costs. Looking back on the studio's history, the note reflects on being a new startup during the global pandemic, and how Concord only entered full production in 2022. It also talks about building a "new, customized next-generation FPS engine in Unreal 4 -> 5, delivering top-tier gameplay feel, beautiful worlds, and a performant 60fps technical experience on a stable and scalable backend on PS5 and PC to hundreds of thousands of players in our beta."

It all points to Concord being seen as an ambitious project that was expected to attract a large audience. Instead it launched to tepid reviews and low interest, prompting PlayStation to pull the plug within days of release. One estimate suggested it only sold around 25,000 copies.

Midia Research Analyst Rhys Elliott told IGN shortly before Concord was shut down, “Pivoting to live services is high-risk, high-reward venture, and the risk is heightening to levels that might not be worth it for many AAA console/PC publishers that aren’t already active in the space."

Concord is