In a surprising announcement, Sony revealed that its latest live service entry, Concord, is being pulled offline. All PlayStation 5 and PC players are being offered refunds too. The AAA title"s launch in August saw only several hundred concurrent players on Steam alone, and PlayStation numbers are estimated to be in the same range. Now, Sony seems to be pulling the plug.
"Concord fans — we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar," starts the post today on the official PlayStation blog. "However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended."
Sony is halting sales of the game immediately, and starting September 6, 2024, servers will no longer be online for the multiplayer-only title. Refunds will begin going out to players on both PlayStation 5 and PC too.
Here"s how the refund procedures will be happening across platforms:
- Steam Store – Steam Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days. Steam will send confirmation of the refund once it has been processed.
- Epic Games Store – Epic Games Store will refund players who bought the game over the coming days and will contact each customer directly to confirm that the refund has been processed.
- Other retailer refunds – For customers who have purchased a physical copy at a retailer location outside of PlayStation directly, please refer to the refund process of the retailer you purchased it from to obtain your refund.
While Sony has not revealed any sales numbers for Concord. Estimates by analysts say only around 25,000 units have been sold since the game"s launch on August 23.
Firewalk Studios says that after pulling the game, it will explore options for proceeding with it to "better reach our players."