Rumors: Sony lacked $200 million to develop Concord

The failure of the hero shooter Concord from Firewalk Studios was so loud that, following the game, Sony decided to close the studio of its developers. Journalists revealed how much the Japanese company initially invested in the unsuccessful project.

Image source: Steam (Seddi)

According to two Kotaku sources familiar with the situation, the original deal to develop Concord cost Sony $200 million, which is comparable to the budgets for The Last of Us Part II ($220 million) and Horizon Forbidden West ($212 million).

Kotaku adds that the mentioned amount was not enough for the entire production cycle of Concord. In addition, the figure does not include Sony’s marketing expenses, expenses for the acquisition of Firewalk Studios and the rights to the Concord franchise.

Image source: Sony Interactive Entertainment

In a farewell message to players, the Firewalk Studios social network account X looked back at Concord’s journey and made it clear where such a significant investment from the Japanese platform holder could have gone.

«Built a new engine for a next-generation shooter on Unreal 4 → 5, providing a high-end gaming experience, beautiful worlds and 60 fps performance on a stable and flexible infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of players in beta on PS5 and PC,” Firewalk reported Studios.

Image source: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Concord launched on August 23 on PC and PS5, and on September 6, Sony turned off the game servers – all buyers were refunded. “After much deliberation,” it was decided to finally bury the game, and at the same time close the studio.

Sony noted that the closure of Firewalk Studios will help strengthen the company: “We will take lessons from Concord and continue to develop our capabilities in the field of game services to achieve growth in this area.”