Concord developer thanks fans for their support after the sudden shutdown. 'For everyone reaching out with love, we make games because of you'

The sudden closure of the recently-launched hero shooting game Concord sparked a wave of grave dancing from people who criticized the game as being too "woke" and diverse, instead of being a "game for gamers", whatever that is supposed to mean. There are messages of support and hope from fans of Concord, amidst the predictable noise and fury.

Concord was released in full on August 23. This means that it lasted just 11 days before Firewalk or Sony decided they had enough. It's difficult to overstate the speed of this train wreck: Amazon's Crucible was launched in 2020 and lasted for more than a year before being pulled. Valve's CCG Artifact lasted almost three years, despite having a tiny player base. Even the infamous Anthem struggled for a few years before Electronic Arts gave up.

The only cancellation that immediately comes to mind is The Day Before. It was cancelled in just four days, and it took an entire development team (or, perhaps I should say, a purported development company) with it. It's not good that The Day Before lasted only one week more than this game.

It also contrasts sharply with the confidence Sony appeared to have in the pre-release of the game: Sony acquired Firewalk in the year 2023 based solely on its perceived strength of Concord. Amazon based a Secret Level episode of their upcoming videogame series on it.

Other game makers have acknowledged this fact on social media.

Daryl Nelson, Bungie and Blizzard veteran, tweeted: "There will be a lot Takes (TM) on today but I wanted to say that launching a game is so hard and a bunch incredible talent worked to deliver this game to us." "Firewalk did not deserve this, and I hope that the entire team can recover and regroup."

"Don't wanna retweet clickbait, or attract trolls. So I'll say that my heart goes out for everyone at Firewalk Studios in regards to today's news. Josh Scherr, writer of The Last of Us and Uncharted, said: "Fuck."

Evan Berman, Tencent's global senior community manager, tweeted: "My heart goes to the Firewalk Team. This decision could not have come easily."

What's next for Concord? Firewalk has said that it wants to "explore" options. It's possible Concord will return in the future retooled, and perhaps free to play. It's not the first time this has happened. Gigantic returned to the market as a "free-to-play" game earlier this summer, six years after its closure. Ubisoft For Honor also struggled before a "free starter edition" was released. Let's not forget that Cyberpunk 2077 was banned from the PlayStation Store for 6 months after its launch was a failure.

Some Concord fans hope for a similar result here, or that Firewalk will not suffer layoffs or closures as a direct result of the failure of the game:

Firewalk Studios did not comment on the closure or the future of Concord after today's announcement. However, design director Josh Hamrick expressed his gratitude for the support shown to developers. Hamrick tweeted: "For all of your reaching out with love, we make games because of you." "Thank you with all my heart." "Now I'm going to win this Area Control Match."