Sony shuts down Concord developer Firewalk Studios, game will remain permanently offline

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• DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I wonder if there is still going to be a Concord episode in the upcoming animated videogame-themed TV show “Secret Level”. A month ago, this was confirmed, but at that point, it wasn’t decided yet whether the Firewalk Studios would be closed.

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  • Cyv_@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    If the work was already done to make the episode I think it should still be included. The artists and animators for it shouldn’t suffer because the thing their story was based on flopped.

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    • DdCno1@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s an idealist point of view and certainly an admirable one, but it might not be realistic. Perhaps Sony execs simply don’t want people to be reminded of this flop they signed off on.

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    • scorp@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      hopefully they don’t get clowned on Social Media because of a Concord episode if ever released, Blur Studio are amazing

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• smeg@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  “Certain aspects of Concord were exceptional,” Hulst continued, “but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options [and] after much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio.”

  But why? Did they actually think it was going to cost more money to keep the servers running than it would bring in? What’s the opposite of the sunk cost fallacy?

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  • p3e7@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Matchmaking took upwards of 10 minutes. Maybe they could capture a core audience but all that waiting would alienate even more people. Increasing the wait time even more. They could have invested more money and re-release it, but how much money would it take to overhaul the game. And there is no guarantee, that a 2.0 would be played more. So giving it up is probably the best solution, not burning even more money. Keep in mind, it costed about 400 million $ to make.

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    • millie@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      These companies really need to learn the private server model. How is your game ever going to get up enough players to be popular when you’re financially incentivized to bail as soon as possible? Put up some public servers for players to hop on, put out a private server client, and let people do their own thing. You can still monetize DLCs or even go the route TF2 went and release paid items and loot crates.

      People are still playing TF2 and still spending money in the item shop. They definitely wouldn’t be if Valve had bailed on it entirely the first time they had a slump in their playerbase.

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    • smeg@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I was keeping in mind that they put that much money in, surely all that money has made something playable that would make some money, whereas throwing it all away makes nothing at all, right?

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  • SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    An opportunity cost is the opposite of a sunk cost.

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• CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  lmao, to think this game costed four times as much as APB is crazy. That game was the definition of “publisher throwing money at a single project until something fun comes out” and it was fun.

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  • megopie@beehaw.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    because they weren’t throwing money at it until it was fun. They were throwing money at it trying to make a new “brand” and live service money printer.

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