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Hey y’all, Alec here. This week’s Director’s Take will be a small reflection on the first half of Season 12 with the release of Juno and Clash, as well as a brief look at some tweaks coming in the Midseason Patch and beyond.
As Overwatch Esports continues into its new era with the Overwatch Champions Series, we’re providing an update on our upcoming Overwatch League Team Inventory sale and OWL Tokens.
Back in my day, I had to play Heroes of the Storm to get the Genji Oni skin, and then Blizzard just went and released it a year or so later, so players could get it for free in loot boxes or in the shop for something like 1000 OW coins. But now, after all these years, the Oni skin is back, and Blizzard is giving it out again for free. Sort of.
Only two weeks after launch, PlayStation made the shocking decision to shut down Concord. Firewalk Studios’ much-derided hero shooter had a disastrous launch, one that analysts estimated only 25,000 players picked up, according to IGN. In a PlayStation Blog post, game director Ryan Ellis was transparent about the fact that “aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended” and that Firewalk will shut the game down on September 6 to “explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
Sometimes a great TV tie-in can give a game a popularity boost—The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 both got Netflix bumps—but it doesn't seem likely that an upcoming TV short based on the world of Concord will have the same effect, given that the hero shooter can't even be purchased anymore. Sony and developer Firewalk are taking Concord offline this week after a dismal player turnout; it didn't even crack 1,000 concurrents on Steam.
Why wasn’t it free-to-play? Should Sony have offered it for free through PS Plus? Did a PlayStation login requirement kill it? Would it have somehow sold millions more copies if its characters didn’t have pronouns?
Everything about Concord, on some level, works, or works well in isolation. Roka's heat-seeking missile launcher tracks targets with a satisfying *bleep bleep bleep*. Starchild's double-jump/power slam ability combo feels great when you can hit multiple targets. But Concord's occasional moments of satisfaction are waylaid by a competitive shooter experience that's too often sluggish, boring, and devoid of any interesting tactics beyond balling up as a team and standing on an objective.
This weekend's two new shooters show off the best and worst of what companies can expect from launching live service games.