Concord closed down within 11 days, and its developers, Firewalk Studios, was unceremoniously shuttered a few short weeks later. It was a tough time for Sony, in a year when the company laid off hundreds of staff members.
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Gaming Cannot Afford Another Concord
The video game industry is in a very dangerous place right now.
Speaking in a recent Q&A, PlayStation President, COO, and CFO Hiroki Totoki shared his thoughts on what happened to Concord and how Sony will apply those lessons in the future.
Hiroki Totoki Reflects On Concord’s Failures
Using an interpreter during a recent investor Q&A (via VGC) Totoki said:
“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.
Currently, we are still in the process of learning.
“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.
“Also, we have a siloed organization, so going beyond the boundaries of those organizations in terms of development and also sales, I think that could have been much smoother.
“And then going forward, in our own titles and in third-party titles, we do have many different windows. And we want to be able to select the right and optimal window so that we can deploy them on our own platform without cannibalization so that we can maximize our performance in terms of title launches. That’s all I have.”
It’s another stark admission of just how bad things were, given that the company president had so much to say.
“Helldivers 2 Was A Huge Hit”
Despite Concord’s failures, Sony had mixed success with its live-service titles this year. Sony senior vice president for finance and IR Sadahiko Hayakawa called Helldivers 2 “a huge hit” during the same call.
Hayakawa said, “We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both [Helldivers 2 and Concord]. We intend to share the lessons learned from our successes and failures across our studios, including in the areas of title development management as well as the process of continually adding expanded content and scaling the service after its release so as to strengthen our development management system.
We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both [Helldivers 2 and Concord]
“We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan period that combines single-player games – which are our strengths and which have a higher predictability of becoming hits due to our proven IP – with live-service games that pursue upside while taking on a certain amount of risk upon release.”
Hayakawa’s comments echo those from Sony’s press release, which originally announced Firewalk Studios’ closure. In the announcement, the company confirmed its live-service ambitions will continue, saying it will “continue to advance our live-service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
Helldivers 2
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Helldivers don’t go planet side without proper backup, but it’s up to you to decide how and when to call it in. Not only do you have a host of superpowered primary weapons and customizable loadouts, you also have the ability to call on stratagems during play.
Helldivers 2 features Arrowhead’s best cooperative gameplay yet. Collaboration will be vital: Teams will synergize on loadouts, strategize their approach for each mission and complete objectives together.1
Enlist in Super Earth’s premier military peacekeeping force today. We are heroes… we are legends… WE ARE HELLDIVERS.