“I’ve never seen this before”: Concord Delisting Forces PlayStation to Do Industry First That No-One Expected
With Concord's dismal release continuing to loom large for Sony, the company is taking drastic measures to bounce back from a rare loss.
- Concord's failure continues to haunt Sony while the company enacts some damage control.
- Even review copies of the game are being purged in an effort to minimize the discourse surrounding it.
- Sony would hope that its next projects do not suffer the same fate - as would PlayStation fans around the world.
While Sony may be hoping to put the entirety of its unfortunate Concord release behind it, its actions are only proving to draw attention to a title that it was forced to delist despite the studio’s high hopes for it. Firewalk Studios’ debut title came with a lot of potential but failed to capture enough attention to stay relevant in a crowded genre of shooters.
With the game being pulled from digital storefronts while its servers were shut down, Sony could be hoping to erase the name Concord from its players’ memories as soon as it can, although that could be easier said than done.
Concord’s Review Copies Are Part of Sony’s Purge
In the post below, video game critic Jordan Middler points out a rather dubious first for Sony and PlayStation, stating that his review copy of Concord was removed from his account – a showcase of how desperate Sony is to move on from one of PlayStation’s most disastrous releases.
Responses to the post suggest that many players believe Sony should try and learn from its admittedly rare mistakes instead of attempting to pretend they never happened in the first place. Their criticism is indeed valid in the wake of Concord’s failure – an event made all the more evident considering the stellar show that Astro Bot put up even before it was released.
However, with Concord officially shut down until further notice, Sony may have decided to remove it from the PlayStation Store entirely in order to allow Firewalk to focus on improving the game, seeing no point in keeping the title alive on its storefront.
Is Sony Going for a Wall of Silence With Concord?
Sony’s unprecedented move has garnered a lot of attention from PlayStation fans, with responses to Middler’s post pouring in that bring up several interesting opinions. From the value of buying physical games to potential next steps for Sony, it is a conversation the company could benefit from observing.
For starters, one player was quick to point out that Sony did indeed have a similar response to a leaked demo of one of its most popular titles this year.
Another PlayStation fan pointed out that Sony could very well have to take similar action on every title a player owns if it were to go out of business – a sobering thought for the company and its fans alike in light of its high expectations for Concord.
Another response to the post suggests that many players seem to have anticipated Sony’s actions, which was probably not too difficult considering the poor response that Concord garnered among its players.
Sony is sure to be thinking long and hard about what went wrong with Concord, a title that had a lot of promise to stand out among shooters but failed to catch the attention of the genre’s many players, despite them being spoilt for choice.
