Threads
- Concord is set to be released on August 23, 2024.
- The game is under a month away, and it is in a concerning situation.
- The $40 price tag, failed betas, and negative impressions indicate that it will be a disaster at launch.
Shooter games have been popular for as long as I can remember. When combined with multiplayer gameplay, this genre is still one of the biggest today, and the likes of Overwatch and Valorant have led to the explosion of the hero shooter genre.
PlayStation is diving into this genre with Concord. However, the gaming giant doesn’t seem to have put much thought behind its long-anticipated first-person shooter comeback, as Concord looks very generic and hardly worth playing.
The hero shooter has been highly criticized, but PlayStation is moving ahead with an August release. As the release date draws nearer with each passing day, Concord is in a concerning situation.
Why it matters: The shooter genre is massive and filled with popular games, so it’s hard to make a title that can stand out.
The $40 Price Tag Is Unreasonable
First of all, the $40 price tag isn’t reasonable. I have no idea what Sony was thinking when this price tag was decided since Concord will directly compete with free-to-play titles.
Counter-Strike is the best example of a free-to-play shooter done right. Valve’s competitive shooter is completely free, but it generated $1 billion last year from cases alone. So, if Concord is going to be flooded with microtransactions, it should not cost any money.
I have lost count of how many people have complained about this price tag. Fans were also concerned about Astro Bot’s pricing, but it seemed promising since Sony gave it a special treatment this time. However, in Concord’s case, the price is too big of a red flag to ignore.
The Recent Betas Failed Miserably
Concord has now concluded two betas. The closed beta was available to PS Plus members on consoles and those who pre-ordered on PC. However, the numbers were far from stellar.
The closed beta reached a tad over 1000 players, which is basically miserable. While I can’t speak for exact PS5 figures, I don’t imagine the game performing much better on consoles.
The open beta followed shortly after, and the numbers weren’t much better. On the other hand, Marvel Rivals was crushing it during its beta weekend. Almost everyone who tried the beta had something bad to say about Concord.
The characters are unlikable, and the overall concept is not original. Who would want to play something based on a concept that has already been done much better before? PlayStation has done little to help this title stand out, and fans have been quick to point that out.
Many have also complained about the issues with the gameplay. The biggest concerns are the gunplay and controls. What first-person shooter can afford to have poor gunplay and controls?
Others have discussed the issues with the unnecessarily long time-to-kill. While this can be fixed through future updates, players have been far from satisfied with the first taste of PlayStation’s major hero shooter.
A Huge Investment Down The Drain
While Concord may not have had budgets as big as The Last of Us, God of War, or Spider-Man 2, it likely wasn’t a small investment for Sony.
Looking at the high-quality CGI trailers and the various marketing efforts, Sony has certainly spent a large chunk of money on the project. The fact that the gaming giant bought Firewalk for $3.6 billion last year is further proof that it was confident in the game.
However, at this rate, all that money will go to waste. I can also imagine the team at Firewalk being the first target for future layoffs in the worst-case scenario since PlayStation laid off nearly 1,000 developers this year.
As it stands, Concord is unlikely to appeal to anybody. Hardcore first-person shooter fans have too many alternatives, and casual players won’t be willing to spend $40 on a title surrounded by free-to-play options.
Concord is set to be released on August 23, so there is less than a month until the game is in the public’s hands. I don’t see it being ready for launch, but there’s hardly any time to make fundamental changes to the gameplay and live service model.
While I’m glad an overpriced battle pass won’t be one of Firewalk’s big problems, this is hardly enough to compensate for everything that has gone wrong with the studio’s live-service hero shooter.
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[News Editor]
Obaid is pursuing a Law degree while working as a content writer. He has worked as a gaming writer for over three years because of his passion for the medium and reporting the latest updates in the industry. Having played hundreds of games, Obaid finds himself coming back to Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Red Dead Redemption 2, with these games being among his favorites. He has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as Wccftech, Metro UK, PS Lifestyle, GamePressure, VGC, and Gamespot.
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