Concord developer expresses gratitude for support following the sudden shutdown: 'For all of you reaching out with love, you are the reason we make games'

The sudden shutdown of the newly-launched hero shooter Concord sparked an entirely unsurprising wave of unfortunate grave dancing amongst people who decried the game for being too «woke» or diverse, rather than being a game «for gamers,» whatever that's supposed to mean. But amidst all that predictable sound and fury, there are also messages of support for the developers at Firewalk Studios, and expressions of hope from fans that Concord will be back.

Concord went into full release on August 23, which means it lasted only 11 days before Firewalk and Sony had seen enough. It's hard to overstate what a high-speed train wreck that represents: Amazon's Crucible lasted more than a month before it was un-launched in 2020, while Valve's CCG Artifact made it almost three years—admittedly with miniscule player counts—before the axe finally fell. Even the infamous Anthem struggled along for a couple years before Electronic Arts threw in the towel.

The only faster cancellation that comes immediately to mind is The Day Before, which went under in just four days and took an entire development studio (or perhaps I should say, purported development studio) with it. Lasting just one week longer than The Day Before, well, that's really not great. 

It also stands in very sharp contrast with the confidence Sony seemed to have in the game pre-release: Sony actually acquired Firewalk in 2023 solely on the perceived strength of Concord, and Amazon based an episode of its upcoming videogame-based series Secret Level on it. 

concord is supposed to be in an episode of the new amazon show secret level https://t.co/37NsnLVUrf pic.twitter.com/rNdBt1DbxWSeptember 3, 2024

The near-complete disinterest in the game and subsequent decision to give up on it after less than two weeks is tough to see from the outside looking in, and no doubt so much tougher for developers to experience first hand, a fact acknowledged by other game makers on social media. 

«There are going to be a lot of Takes (TM)