“Concord, I feel your pain”: Gears of War’s Cliff Blezsinkski is Forced to Remember His Lawbreakers Career Low as Concord Pulls the Plug
Concord's failure has drawn a comment from Cliff Blezsinkski whose Lawbreakers garnered a similar response upon its 2017 release.
- Concord has been pulled from digital storefronts after a mere two weeks since its release.
- The game's failure drew a comment from Cliff Blezsinkski, a designer whose best work includes Gears of War.
- Blezsinkski's own attempt at a shooter called Lawbreakers was a failure, showcasing how competitive the genre can be for new entries.
The recent exit of Concord from the PlayStation Store may not have come as a surprise to many of its players. Sony’s attempt at a first-person hero shooter failed to scale the dizzy heights that other multiplayer shooters like Helldivers 2 managed to reach with the game receiving a lackluster response despite a reportedly long development cycle and a reasonably good critical response.
With developer Firewalk Studios offering full refunds to customers who purchased a copy, Concord‘s fate remains unknown with the studio hoping to bring the game back after revamping its gameplay loop and characters at a later, currently unannounced date.
Cliff Blezsinkski Offers up Some Empathy for Firewalk
Concord’s dismal performance has drawn a lot of attention on Firewalk and Sony, especially in the wake of Astro Bot’s upcoming release drawing a lot of praise for Team Asobi. However, the studios have managed to find a friendly face in the midst of their many disgruntled players in Cliff Blezsinkski, a former video game designer at Epic Games who has some experience with failed shooters.
Blezsinkski’s early career at Epic Games saw him work on some of modern gaming’s best franchises with Gears of War being a significant addition to his portfolio. However, his decision to co-found Boss Key Productions after his exit from Epic Games proved unfruitful with its debut title Lawbreakers facing a similar situation to Concord back in 2017.
Concord’s Repetition of Lawbreakers’ History
As a first-person shooter featuring compelling characters, innovative gameplay, and a whole lot of modes for its players to take on in a team-based 5v5 format, Lawbreakers was Blezsinkski’s attempt at creating a shooter that would take the genre by storm. Unfortunately, that was not the case with the game being shut down after a little over a year as its positive reviews did not translate into great sales numbers.
Blezinkski’s tweet below showcases how the developer has managed to take Lawbreakers’ failure in his stride while his empathy for what Firewalk must be going through shines through.
Responses to the tweet follow in Blezsinkski’s footsteps, bringing a bit of humor into the mix while managing to take a few shots at Sony’s failed shooter.
Some players even went as far as to say that Lawbreakers‘ failure may not have been as well-deserved as Concord’s disastrous outing – something that Blezsinkski would certainly appreciate.
Another response to the tweet is indicative of how both titles’ players remain largely unimpressed by games that fail to stand out against the competition in a largely competitive space despite their developers’ best efforts.
While Blezinkski seems to have taken the failure of his game fairly well, it remains to be seen if Firewalk Studios and Sony can take a similar approach and make Concord the game they always intended it to be. From the way things currently stand, the wait for a better, improved version of the game may be quite long indeed.
