“Concord”, developed by Firewalk and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, failed to meet expectations. After eight years of development, the number of players and sales figures are disappointing. Analysts have their say.
“Unity”which was released on August 23, 2024 for PS5 and PC, apparently failed to attract many players despite high expectations and a long development time.
Official sales figures are not available. Statistics from Steam and estimates from analysts suggest that the repetition of the “Helldivers 2” success remains out of reach for Sony for the time being.
Only 25,000 sales on PS5 and PC?
On Steam, “Concord” only reached a Peak of 697 concurrent playerswas clearly below expectations. Even the “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” was considered a failure Performed better at release with 13,459 concurrent players.
The number of players of “Concord” continued to fall and in the week after the launch there were already fewer than 300 players active at the same time. In the last 24 hours there were up to 151 players. At the moment there are only around 50 on Steam.
The shooter was also released for the PS5, but reportedly with a similarly low success. Analyst Simon Carless estimates the total sales of “Concord” according to IGN to around 10,000 units on Steam and around 15,000 on PlayStation. It should be noted that these numbers are far from confirmed.
Why is Concord flopping?
Analysts believe that there are several reasons for the game’s failure. One crucial point is the lack of marketing. According to Mat Piscatella, an analyst at Circana, “Concord” suffers from “low awareness and willingness to buy” among players.
Despite limited advance advertising with trailers and gameplay reveals, he believes the game failed to attract widespread attention. And the limited retail presence, with only a “handful of web placements at GameStop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and the PlayStation Store,” contributed to the low number of players.
Joost van Dreunen, professor at NYU Stern and author of the newsletter SuperJoost, also stressed that “while there have been trailers and some gameplay reveals for Concord, pre-release advertising seems to be relatively limited.”
Another factor is the Lack of differentiation in an already mature market for multiplayer shootersespecially since the willingness to switch to such games is rather low. The price of “Concord” also plays a role. Many players found the price-performance ratio to be unbalanced despite the amount of 39.99 euros, especially in comparison to free alternatives in the live service segment.
“Concord should have been released as a free-to-play version – or at least as part of the PlayStation Plus subscription – to have a chance in this crowded genre.” Of course, it’s not too late for that, but the damage may already be done. “First impressions count,” says Midia Research analyst Rhys Elliott.
Square Enix also had to give in:
Player reviews are mixed
On Metacritic, “Concord” has a Metascore of 62And despite the limited response, the title received around 67 percent positive reviews on Steam – the overall score is “balanced”. Many users praise the fun and challenges, but criticize the graphic design and the feeling of movement in the game.
The PlayStation Store is the Approval rate similarHere the shooter gets 2.93 out of five possible stars. 8,556 ratings were submitted, which also indicates a manageable sales figure.
For comparison: “Helldivers 2” has 90,937 ratings in the PS Store. In May, a Sales of twelve million reported, which is distributed across PS5 and PC. However, based on the reviews and sales, the numbers given by Simon Carless for “Concord” seem to be quite low.
Further reports on “Concord” on PLAY3.DE:
“Concord” was named after a eight-year development time will be released on August 23, 2024 and is available on PlayStation 5 and on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Whether the game can turn things around through future updates or marketing efforts remains to be seen.
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