Concord will be taken offline this coming week as Sony aims to 'explore' options that will a 'better reach' our players.

Sony announced that Concord will be taken offline on September 6, so they can decide what to do next.

Firewalk Studios' game director Ryan Ellis announced on the PlayStation blog that Concord sales would be halted immediately. All storefronts will offer automatic refunds "over the next few days." Anyone who purchased a physical version will need to "refer back to the refund procedure of the retailer that you purchased it from in order to obtain your refund."

It's a shockingly fast shutdown for a game that was only launched on the 23rd of August, but it was probably inevitable. PS5 player numbers aren't publicly available, but Steam numbers are absolutely catastrophic: According to SteamDB, the all-time maximum concurrent player count was only 697. Right now, there are only 30 players.

The suddenness and speed of the closure is even more remarkable when you consider that Concord had reportedly been in development for 8 years. This is an incredible amount of time, (and money, no doubt) for a video game that folded in under two weeks.

Ellis said Firewalk would "explore options" after the shutdown to "better connect with our players." One obvious move is making Concord free to play. Concord was initially priced at $40/PS35/EUR40. This put it at a disadvantage in a market flooded with free-to play hero shooters.

The lack of a unique competitive shooter experience, with its sluggishness, boredom, and lack of interesting tactics, was a challenge. We said as much in our 45% review.

It's possible that Concord's publisher Sony will decide to pull the plug. BioWare Anthem met a similar fate. After a disastrous release, Electronic Arts promised a "complete overhaul", but then abandoned the game a year later. Concord's problems are not limited to its price, and the reputation that it has been saddled with as a result of this complete flop launch will be hard to shake, no matter what Sony or Firewalk Studios decide to do.