“Proud of what we’re doing over here”: Concord Tries Its Best to Make up for Terrible Steam Numbers With Unique Battle Pass
Firewalk Studios is breaking a major live-service gaming tradition with its upcoming release.
One of the major advantages that live-service video games like Concord have over everything else is the chance to become a better gaming experience as time goes on. Not only can the developers pay close attention to community feedback and implement the necessary changes, but studios can keep improving and expanding their respective titles by adding new content to make the game more rewarding for their player base.
Unfortunately, the majority of modern live-service multiplayer games are usually accompanied by paid Battle Passes, locking some exclusive content away behind a paywall that players can only access by spending money, which is where Firewalk Studios seems to be differentiating itself from the rest of the competition.
Concord Abandons the Battle Pass Model That Most Live-Service Video Games Come With
Although Concord did not have the strongest open beta this past weekend, as not many players seemed to be interested in checking it out due to various reasons, the latest update by Firewalk Studios promises a better future for the game, at least when compared to the way it kicked off.
With an all-time peak of just over 2,000 players on Steam, which could be attributed to the hero shooter’s unavailability on the platform in numerous countries, the developer decided to do some damage control and clarified some of the community’s concerns regarding the title’s long-term plans.
While popular live-service hero shooters like Apex Legends offer paid Battle Passes to their fans, which could be considered acceptable since the base games are usually free-to-play, Firewalk is taking a different approach and abandoning the model altogether.
Of course, Concord would have probably received even more backlash if it followed the paid Battle Pass model, especially because the base game itself costs $40 when many believe that it should be free-to-play, but the developers at Sony’s latest studio seem to be “very proud of what” they are doing with their title.
With the goal of “making Concord a rewarding and robust experience on day one,” Firewalk wanted to ensure that players do not have to go through an additional transactional step to level up their characters, letting the completion of objectives and missions be what provides the community with rewards instead of microtransactions.
Firewalk Studios Is Already Discussing Post-Launch Content Even Before the Game’s Launch
“Launch is just the beginning,” assures Firewalk Studios in the hopes of not losing the community that it is gradually building through the beta phase of the game, as the developer is already teasing “new Freegunners, maps, modes, and more,” even though Concord still has around a month till its official launch.
It is not really surprising that a live-service video game has multiple post-launch seasons planned out for the future, but the upcoming content will be added to the title and available “to all players at no additional cost.”
As Concord nears its August 23 launch date, Firewalk will share further details about the specifics in the form of a proper roadmap, but for those players who appreciated the cinematic footage during the beta, the developer promises more cinematics that will be launched weekly in-game.
Considering that the characters in Concord have been receiving criticism for not being the most original, perhaps these cinematics can provide them with enough development to help them carve their own identities in an otherwise crowded genre.
