Sony's Live-Service Competence Under Scrutiny After Concord Failure

The recent withdrawal of Concord from the market, just two weeks after its launch, has left many questioning Sony's competence in the live-service sector. This move, although not entirely unexpected, is still shocking given the significant investment the company has made in this area. Following a strongly negative reaction to the game, Sony seemed to have lost faith in Firewalk's hero shooter, providing it with little marketing support and essentially allowing it to fade away from the company's communications strategy. It's understandable that Sony might be ambivalent about Concord, considering it wasn't a game conceived within the company. Firewalk Studios, which was acquired by Sony in 2023, had been working on Concord since its founding in 2018. Many of Firewalk's senior staff came from Bungie, which Sony had acquired the previous year, suggesting that the studio was purchased for its expertise and experience rather than the game it was working on at the time. The decisions that led to Concord's demise were likely made before Sony acquired the studio, limiting the amount of blame that can be attributed to the company. However, this doesn't change the fact that Concord was released under the PlayStation logo, which has been synonymous with quality over the past decade. The failure of Concord raises questions about Sony's ability to oversee and provide input on live-service games, particularly given its reputation for successfully managing game studios. Sony's pivot to live service was a strategic decision made a few years ago, driven by the desire to tap into the lucrative live-service market. The company spent billions of dollars acquiring Bungie and partnering with other live-service focused companies. While there have been some successes, such as Helldivers 2, the overall approach has been chaotic. Bungie has been in a state of crisis since its acquisition, and Firewalk's game has been pulled from sale in record time. The timing of Sony's pivot into live service has been unfortunate, with the company launching games into a market where consumers have become increasingly skeptical of live-service concepts. The risk-reward profile of this business model is unappealing, and it's likely that several high-profile titles will fail in the next year or two. Sony is known for its expertise in running game studios, and its reputation as a platform holder and game publisher is unparalleled. However, the company's efforts to acquire expertise in live service through studio acquisitions have been unsuccessful. The failure of Concord and the struggles of Bungie raise questions about Sony's understanding of the live-service market and its ability to manage the development of games in this genre. The live-service market is a ruthless arena, where only a handful of games succeed, and the rest are brutally punished. With high-profile titles failing regularly, the odds of success have become even lower. The risk is that Sony's commitment to live service will create stresses within PlayStation Studios, pulling the company away from its core competencies and forcing it to manage games it barely understands. Despite the failure of Concord, Sony has the resources to continue experimenting with live service. The company has other projects in the works, such as Astro Bot, which relies heavily on nostalgia for PlayStation's great single-player games. If Astro Bot achieves commercial success, it may provide a lesson for Sony about the importance of focusing on its core strengths rather than trying to chase the next big thing in live service. Ultimately, every publisher experimenting with live service is doing so to address the challenges of increasingly expensive game development and flat revenues. However, the approach of trying to create the next Fortnite is becoming increasingly questionable. For Sony, the decisions made in its live-service pivot have largely been unsuccessful, and it may be time for the company to reconsider its approach.