The news just keeps getting worse for Sony’s Concord: The company is closing down not just the remains of the game but its entire studio, Firewalk.
Readers will recall that the team-based PvP shooter launched in August to disappointing results, and Sony stepped in to announce it would close down September 6th, meaning it had not even two weeks of life before being crushed. Just a few weeks after that, its devs – somewhere around 150-170 workers – were left in limbo as their director was moved to an unspecified “support role” at SIE and the rest waited to find out the fate of their studio.
Now we know. The sunset and closure news came in a memo from SIE co-CEO Hermen Hulst.
“Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September […] certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options. After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication. The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”
In the same memo, Sony also announces the closure of its Neon Koi studio and says its mobile action game “will not be moving forward.”
These won’t be the first layoffs for Sony in 2024;Â it laid off almost a thousand staff, 8% of its global workforce, back in February, then took an axe to Bungie this past July. Lest you feel sorry for the megacorp, recall that SIE initiated a $1.5B stock buyback in 2023. As of September 30th, 2024, Sony has repurchased a total of $1.26B worth of shares under its board’s 2023 buyback plan.
