The $40 hero shooter game is being taken offline on Friday due to poor sales and negative feedback. The company says anyone who bought the game will get a full refund.
PlayStation is pulling the plug on its online first-person shooter game less than two weeks after the release.
Concord, which debuted on August 23, will go offline on Friday after a flood of negative feedback, game director Ryan Ellis announced in a blog post on Tuesday.
“While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch have not resonated as we intended,” Ellis wrote. “As such, at this time we have decided to take the game offline starting September 6, 2024 and explore options, including ones that better reach our players.”
Buyers of the game will receive a full refund and sales will stop immediately while the developers “determine the best path forward.”
How to get a refund for Concord
According to Ellis’ blog post, players who purchased Concord will receive a full refund regardless of how or where they purchased the game. Once the refund is issued, players will immediately lose access to the game.
Those who purchased the game through digital video game distribution services such as the Steam Store and Epic Games Store will receive a refund in the next few days and should receive confirmation once it is processed.
Customers who purchased a physical copy of the game from a retailer outside of PlayStation should contact that specific retailer for a refund, Ellis wrote.
Why did the Concord game fail?
“Concord” posted weak weekly sales, peaking at 697 concurrent players, a significantly low number for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s video game brand, Variety reported.
According to Forbes video game critic Paul Tassi, the main reason for Concord’s failure was its $40 price tag, as many other hero shooter games are free-to-play.
Tassi also blamed the “oversaturation” of the market in the hero shooter genre, arguing that games like Overwatch and Valorant would make it difficult for future games to succeed. He also criticized the game’s character designs and overall aesthetics, as well as a poor marketing campaign, among other things.
“It is clear that from start to finish, almost everything that could be done wrong was done wrong in the design and implementation of Concord,” he wrote.
