Concord effectively buried as Sony shutters Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi

An internal email from Hermen Hulst today has revealed that Sony is shutting down its mobile studio, Neon Koi, as well as Concord developer Firewalk Studios. It has also announced that they have reached the decision to “sunset the game” rather than attempt to salvage and re-release it in some form.

Many of us were bracing for this possible outcome. Concord may have been one the most prolific and expensive failures to launch. It’s been reported that Sony bet big on the game, seeing it as their entry vector into the live service games market. Firewalk started development on the game in 2018, and Sony acquired the studio and the property in 2023. It would appear that they had plans for the license to be a pillar for them, with a storyline based on the game planned as part of Amazon Prime Video’s show, Secret Levels. The game was officially launched on August 23, 2024, and yanked offline exactly two weeks later on September 6.

It may seem like its removal from storefronts was a hasty decision, but player counts were so staggeringly low at launch that it was unlikely to recover. After it was retracted, announcements were made that sounded as though the company was going to reposition the game and relaunch it in some manner, but as Destructoid’s Steven Mills said at the time, it seemed unlikely.

There was hope that the developer wouldn’t take the brunt of the repercussions as many of the more damning decisions around Concord seemed like they would have been made higher up at a publisher level, such as pricing the game at $40 while positioning it against free-to-play games like Overwatch and Fortnite. Unfortunately, as it always seems in these situations, that’s not the case, and the developer is being outright shuttered.

Neon Koi, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have really been given much of a chance. As far as I can find, none of the “mobile action games” that it was working on were announced. The statement reads, “While mobile remains a priority growth area for the Studio Business, we are in the very early stage of our mobile efforts.  To achieve success in this area we need to concentrate on titles that are in line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to reach more players globally.”

The email includes a rather galling message: “I am a big believer in the benefits of embracing creative experimentation and developing new IP. However, growing through sustainable financials, especially in a challenged economic environment, is critical.” I somehow doubt that the developers losing their jobs are going to take comfort in the fact that their sacrifice was to enable growth through “sustainable financials.”

The only real shred of optimism to be found in the statement is here: “We will work to find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible.” Hopefully, that’s sincere and many of the folks at Firewalk and Neon Koi won’t be out of work for long.

2024 has been a pretty hellish year for the industry. It quickly eclipsed 2023’s already substantial mountain of layoffs, and there really is no end in sight. It’s a stressful time to be in the industry.