It’s been two weeks since Sony announced the unprecedented move to stop publishing Concord, and it’s been almost as long since the ill-fated sci-fi hero shooter was officially taken offline. Kotaku has learned that developers at Firewalk Studios have been in limbo over their future ever since, as they await Sony’s decision on what to do next with Concord and the team.

Whatever happens, game director Ryan Ellis will not be at the helm. Ellis was previously at Bungie, where he served as creative director on Destiny 2, and left the company in 2017 to lead development of what would become Concord. He told Firewalk staff last week that he would be stepping down from his role as game director and taking on a support role instead, according to three sources familiar with the change.

Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ellis was the main man responsible for Concord, which failed to attract an audience despite praise for its underlying shooter gameplay feel. Analyst Simon Carless estimated to IGN that the $40 PVP-only game had only sold around 25,000 copies, an abysmal number not only given its budget but also the PlayStation first-party brand it represented. Sony acquired Firewalk in 2023 for an undisclosed sum after the game had been in production for years, and promoted Concord at both the PlayStation Showcase in May of this year and the 2024 Showcase.

“Ryan believed deeply in this project and in bringing players together through the joy of it,” said a former developer who felt Ellis put a lot of himself into the game, which led to a lot of stress. “Regardless of the fact that there were things that could have been done differently during development… he’s a good person and full of heart.”

Sources told Kotaku that Ellis was too emotional to speak during a post-launch studio meeting after it became clear the game was a flop. In a September 3 PlayStation blog post announcing Concord’s removal from shelves, Ellis wrote, “Some aspects of the game and our initial launch did not go as we intended.” He added that the team will “explore options, including ones that better reach our players” and work to “find the best path forward.”

Some outsiders speculated that Concord could be relaunched as a PS Plus exclusive or free-to-play game towards the end of this year or in early 2025 to entice more players to try it out. The game’s existing content roadmap spanned three seasons, complete with the promise of expensive weekly cutscenes telling the story of Concord’s world and characters.

But for many at the studio, it’s still not clear what will happen next, three sources told Kotaku. They’re pessimistic that Concord will return, and some have been asked to consider proposals for something entirely different that Firewalk, which currently employs about 150 to 170 people, could work on next. There’s also been speculation among some employees about whether the studio could be used as a co-developer on one of Sony’s myriad other first-party projects currently in production.

Others, however, believe that mass layoffs will be the most likely consequence of Concord’s failure, including the potential closure of the entire studio, which Kotaku’s sources say is one of the most expensive studios in the PlayStation portfolio per capita. Some developers are updating their resumes and portfolios, some have already preemptively left the studio, and others are waiting to see what a potential severance package will look like before deciding what to do next.

Sony made sweeping cuts earlier this year, including cancelling several games and closing the PlayStation London studio, but with rival Microsoft recently laying off another 650 employees from its Xbox games division and the end of another fiscal quarter approaching, more cuts could be on the way.

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