Sony Reflects on Concord's Demise: The Uncertainty of New IPs

Sony's leadership has been analyzing the factors that led to the failure of Concord, a live service shooter. According to VGC, investors posed multiple questions about the game's collapse during the earnings call following Sony's latest financial report. Hiroki Totoki, Sony's president, COO, and CFO, stated that the company is still learning about live service games and has identified areas for improvement in future titles. "When it comes to new IPs, you can't predict the outcome until you try it," he said. Totoki emphasized the need for more gates, including user testing and internal evaluations, and better timing for these assessments. He also acknowledged that the company's siloed organization hindered development and sales. Going forward, Sony aims to optimize title launches on its platform and avoid cannibalization. Concord was launched on August 23 but was taken offline 11 days later due to poor sales, with players receiving full refunds. Last week, Sony announced the closure of Firewalk Studios and the permanent shutdown of Concord. During the earnings call, Sadahiko Hayakawa, Sony's senior vice president for finance and investor relations, highlighted the company's success with live service launches in 2024, citing Helldivers 2 as a huge hit. Hayakawa emphasized that Sony will share lessons learned from its successes and failures across its studios to strengthen its development management system and build a balanced title portfolio.