Concordmay be consideredone of 2024’s biggest flopsbutplayers shouldn’t count out the hero-shooter just yet as it may be preparing a major return. Launching on August 23,Concordquickly became a meme online as Firewalk Studio’s multiplayer game failed so badly thatit was completely delisted from storefrontsjust two weeks after its release with the development team issuing refunds to everyone who purchased it. It was an unfortunate mixture of a middling competitive experience, poor advertising, and an incompatible market, but Sony could be setting upConcordfor another try.
PerPCGamesN,players have noticed that the SteamDB forConcordhas received almost daily updates in the last few weeks. The nature of these updates is still unknown but it is odd that Firewalk is continually tweaking the game’s Steam listing if it’s no longer available for sale. This by itself isn’t enough to suggest thatConcordmay return soon, but it does have fans of eagerly anticipating some kind of announcement, especially when the studio implied that it was taking some time to reconsider the game and its launch as a whole.
Should Concord Return?
It Doesn’t Seem All That Wise
Firewak Studios made it clear when it delistedConcordthatit was going to"explore options, including those that will better reach our players,“leading many to believe that the studio would re-release the game at some point in the future. How the revamped launch might look has been widely debated amongst the community, with many suggesting thatConcordpivot away from being a paid experience andembrace a free-to-play model. Even if that is the direction Firewalk opts to take, it seems doubtful that enough players care forConcord’s take on hero-shooters.
The multiplayer genre has always been extremely competitive and with the sub-genre of hero-shooter becoming more popular than ever, it’s oversaturated.Concordmay be a technically solid shooter but it doesn’t bring anything unique or new to the tablethat helps it stand out from its contemporaries. One might argue that the attempt at telling a focused story with weekly cinematics may have been a fun hook but since no one cared for the game’s characters, the cutscenes failed to impress.
Concord Review: Losing An Uphill Battle
For fans of the genre, there’s a lot to like about the new 5v5 hero shooter Concord, but finding something to love feels much less likely.
Screen Rant’s Take: Concord Shouldn’t Return
There’s Just No Room For It
Free-to-play live-service games take something far more valuable than money from people: Time. I believe that ifConcorddoes want to go the route of offering a free experience to players,it needs to provide some kind of justification as to why users should play it over something likeOverwatch 2, Apex: Legends, orthe forthcomingMarvel Rivals. Unless the entire gameplay loop is revamped to be made into an experience that stands out from the crowd, I doubt that the game will be able to find an audience in such a competitive space.
