Sony Comments on Concord Disaster, Says Game Should Have Been Tested Earlier | Push Square
Sony has claimed it should have been performing internal tests of Concord earlier than it was to spot the mistakes that led to its disastrous launch. Speaking during a Q&A session part of its latest Q2 financial earnings call, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the firm is still going through a learning process in terms of live-service development, and the «gates» it has in place should have happened sooner.
The «gates» that Totoki is referring to relate to «user testing» and «internal evaluation», with his full quote reading (as per VGC): «Currently, we are still in the process of learning. And basically, with regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it.»
“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did." Totoki then refers to Sony has a «siloed organisation» and suggests it perhaps needs to go «beyond the boundaries of those organisations in terms of development, and also sales».
Concord did receive an open beta on PS5 and PC just prior to its release, but just like the full release, its player numbers were poor. On PC, the pre-release test peaked at just 2,388 concurrent players.
Earlier in the earnings call, senior vice president for finance and IR at Sony, Sadahiko Hayakawa, compared the success of Helldivers 2 with its Concord failure, noting: «We launched two live service games this year. Helldivers 2 was a huge hit, while Concord ended up being shut down. We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both.»
Crash landing
A price to pay
Hayakawa explained the learnings gained from this success and failure will be shared with Sony's internal development studios «so as to strengthen our development management system. We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan period that combines
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