Who could have seen this coming?!
In an absolutely brutal indicator of just how much of a creative and financial misfire the largely game is turning out to be, Concord is finally here…and almost no one cares.
Before anyone accuses that statement of being either ‘hyperbolic’ or ‘clickbait’, rest assured, it is anything but.
After eight years (EIGHT YEARS?!) in development, the widely-panned hero shooter finally released to both PlayStation 5 and PC players on August 23rd.
And while the relevant data for the PS5 is currently unavailable, the game’s PC turnout has been nothing short of disastrous.
Per Steam DB, an analytics outfit who provides public data regarding the Valve-run digital storefront, in the roughly nine-hours since the game’s official launch, Concord has as of writing only managed to pull in a peak concurrent player count of only 697.
This number was reportedly achieved roughly three hours into the game’s lifetime. At current, the game’s player count stands at an even lower 579.
Notably, these player counts fall significantly short of the peak concurrent player count posted by the game’s beta release.
Made available to players on two occasions – the first being an ‘Early Access’ preview weekend and the second a full-on open beta – this test version of the game still managed to pull in a max of 2,388 concurrent players.
Ultimately, while an objectively disappointing result by any measure, the widespread disinterest in Concord is far from unsurprising.
Between its ‘Guardians of the Galaxy at home’ character writing, extremely passé and boring hero shooter gameplay mechanics, and the fact that it costs a minimum of $40 USD to play – especially when such similar and arguably better produced titles as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and even Overwatch 2 are all free to play – it’s genuinely no wonder that players of all stripes decided to pass on PlayStation Studios’ latest release.
In the interest of fairness, though it already seems like Concord will go down as a Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League-level disaster for Sony, there does exist the distinct possibility that the game is absolutely exploding on the PlayStation 5.
But given both its poor PC reception and the absolute thrashing the game is receiving from players, such a surprise turnabout feels distinctly relegated to the realm of ‘pure fantasy’.
Ah well. Disappointing for Sony as Concord‘s release may be, it’s not like the company moved to acquire its developer, Firewalk Studios, based solely on the expectation that this, their debut game, would be a smash hit.
Oh, wait. Bummer.
(That all said, what’s the over/under on this game going free-to-play within the next six months?)
NEXT: Firewalk Studios Dev Reveals Insane ‘Concord’ Dev Time, Says Game Took “Around 8 Years” To Make