Interesting fact about who is responsible for why this game failed.

[Dragon Master]

A lot of people like to blame executives, such as the publisher like Sony, when a game does poorly. "Oh, we didn't get to do the things we wanted or make the game we wanted because of power from on high".

That does not apply to Concord.

Firewalk studios was working on Concord for 8 years. Since 2016.

Sony purchased and bought Concord in 2023. Last year. When it was in development for 7 years and was in the end stages.

Sony didn't give any mandates for how this game should be because they came to the party late. They just wanted to milk the rewards of a live-service game because under Jim Ryan that was the direction PlayStation was going in. Big blockbuster movie-games and live-service cash cows.

Concord, and every decision that led to people not liking it, therefore, would actually have been made by Firewalk Studios directly.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by Dragon Master:

Sony didn't give any mandates for how this game should be because they came to the party late. They just wanted to milk the rewards of a live-service game because under Jim Ryan that was the direction PlayStation was going in. Big blockbuster movie-games and live-service cash cows.

Sony approved the M&A and rolled with the project going live. It'd be a different story if Firewalk had dozens of IPs they own and Concord was just one of those, but nope - Concord is the only IP Firewalk owned at the time of M&A. This means not only Sony banked on a studio with no prior game releases, they also banked on this specific IP.

Considering that the M&A was likely a $50 mil (or more) deal, there has to be some due diligence done - and I firmly believe it was. It's just that said due diligence on Sony's part didn't reveal any issues and they truly believed into the IP, putting their full funding behind, making Amazon promos, featuring it on their PS steams and platforms, etc, etc.

Firewalk is responsible for making this dumpster fire, Sony is responsible for approving it and bringing it live (I mean, it was dead, but .. you get the idea).

[Dragon Master]

Originally posted by Kiler_best1235_Denmark:

Originally posted by Dragon Master:

Not really. Sony is responsible too. This is all a scam with money. Money from GTA players and all others are going directly into the pockets of these evil DEI people.

Pure simple old scam that happened a lot before the internet was a thing aswell.

Do you think they will pay back their 8 years of salary and the company price, what did the other users write, 1.000 million $?

It is only because you do not have TAX really in the US. In the k1 ddie fiddling soviet union called EUSSR, the tax goes to the big banks and other evil government type people who failed. And mostly to evil people who should not have had 1$.

Yet the game was 7 years in development when Sony acquired them. For all intents and purposes, Concord made every decision regarding the development of the game itself.

Sony only purchased Firewalk studios last year, after all.

[More Dakka]

IMO, they are responsible for different aspects of the game. Firewalk is at fault for failing to make a compelling (characters, gameplay, etc) game. Sony exacerbated the situation by failing to do market analysis and in its hubris, decided that a premium business model would be suitable when their stronger competitors are offering free.

Firewalk is in charger of the former while Sony makes the decision for the latter.

[I BEAT OTZ]

Originally posted by More Dakka:

IMO, they are responsible for different aspects of the game. Firewalk is at fault for failing to make a compelling (characters, gameplay, etc) game. Sony exacerbated the situation by failing to do market analysis and in its hubris, decided that a premium business model would be suitable when their stronger competitors are offering free.

Firewalk is in charger of the former while Sony makes the decision for the latter.

why you open your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about gameplay if you never played it?

[Tarious]

Nope. Sony is just as responsible. They could've had people monitoring the game and told them no, but they didn't. That's why shareholders need to start sueing these companies like Sony, WB, and Disney.

[More Dakka]

Originally posted by I BEAT OTZ:

why you open your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about gameplay if you never played it?

I did try the beta. Besides, the player numbers is proof of what I said.

And even if I didn't, I have every right to state my opinion. Don't like it? What can you do?

[Dragon Master]

Originally posted by Tarious:

Nope. Sony is just as responsible. They could've had people monitoring the game and told them no, but they didn't. That's why shareholders need to start sueing these companies like Sony, WB, and Disney.

Why would they be monitoring a game in development for 7 years that they didn't own? All of the development would have been done by the time they bought the studio and it would be in the final stages of development.

Sony's level of responsibility is looking at what they had and thinking that it was a gold mine worth buying because they are out of touch with the general gaming audience, but Firewalk Studios were making the game for 7 years before Sony had any involvement at all.

[alexng]

But the high executives reviewed this game before buying the company. They have full responsibility on this business decision.

[Dragon Master]

Originally posted by alexng13:

But the high executives reviewed this game before buying the company. They have full responsibility on this business decision.

And they are guilty of being woefully out of touch. They aren't the ones who made the decisions that were made though. That would have been "the professor" (so called, just some executive within Firewalk studio who cared more about being addressed as a title they never had and no educational background to support than making a good game, according to the leaks) and all the people within Firewalk studio who had any say in the design and direction of the game.

So Firewalk studio bares effectively all the blame for the decisions they made, not Sony. Sony is guilty of looking at what they had and thinking it was gold. Probably because of their ethics department they set up after moving to California.

[Aerooooooo]

>A lot of people like to blame executives, such as the publisher like Sony, when a game does poorly.

That's usually the case. Look at how Metalhead Studios gave us Super Mega Baseball, arguably one of the most underrated franchises in the past decade plus, only for EA to swoop on in, buy them out, then utterly derail the franchise to the point Metalhead is out of business.

https://np.reddit.com/r/SuperMegaBaseball/comments/1e1plpw/a_note_from_metalhead/

There are so many horror stories that it's not surprising pubs get first dibs at being hit by the hate train.

[Brandon]

The only ones to blame is the crappy firewalk devs and there pitiful social media reactions, they attack possible buyers and then ask why no one buy, these devs are screwed in the game industry no one will get near them for making a crap game.