- Concord was highly criticized after it was revealed by PlayStation.
- The previous beta failed to reach impressive player counts, but it required pre-ordering the game on Steam.
- PlayStation has now opened the beta to everyone, but Concord still peaked at less than 2.5K concurrent Steam players.
Concord is shaping up to be PlayStation’s biggest disappointment in 2024. Not only is this hero shooter proving to be quite generic, but it also costs $40 in a market dominated by free-to-play releases.
This price tag is certainly a cause for concern, but the beta is showing even bigger red flags so far. Following a mostly disappointing beta based on pre-orders, PlayStation launched the open beta yesterday.
While everyone can play the beta without any purchases now, Concord has still failed to break past 2.5K concurrent players.
Why it matters: PlayStation is betting big on its live-service releases from first-party teams. Following Helldivers 2’s success, Concord was positioned as another major live-service hit.
The open beta peaked at a mere 2,388 concurrent players, which is far from stellar.
While nobody had high expectations after the last beta, Concord was expected to see a substantially bigger audience. However, this player count is just 2x higher than the last beta’s peak.
At the time of writing, the player count has dropped as low as 773. This shows a noticeable lack of interest from the players, painting a very concerning picture for the full release next month.
Many fans are already expecting Concord to end up being dead on arrival because of the apparent lack of interest. With just one month before release, PlayStation and Firewalk Studios don’t have enough time to address the core issues with the game.
According to the studio, the best parts are yet to come, but we don’t see how things will get much better from here. It doesn’t help that Concord often looks like the most generic hero shooter on the market.
This is probably why the last beta ended up being such a disaster.
It is also important to note that this beta is only accessible to parts of the world with PSN support on Steam. The PSN requirement controversy hasn’t done much to help Concord out.
At this point, going free-to-play might help Concord regain some interest from the public. However, this probably won’t be enough for long-term player interest unless the game receives a massive overhaul.
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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.