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[ArtHands]

Concord Is Estimated to Have Sold Only 25,000 Units. Here’s Why Analysts Think It Failed - IGN

What happened to Concord? Why did a big Sony first-party game get sent out to die immediately? Is it actually selling badly, or are we just reading the numbers wrong? As usual when questions of this nature crop up, I asked a bunch of professional industry analysts to explain it to me.

www.ign.com

While historically low numbers like the ones being experienced by Concord have a tendency to be used to drive narratives that don't always paint a full picture, that's not what's happening here. Liam Deane, principal analyst at Omdia, said, "The Steam numbers are so bad that even without the exact data on the PS5 side we can be pretty certain that the game is doing very badly."

Other analysts were able to share a bit of insight on the PlayStation side with me. Per Circana analyst Mat Piscatella citing Circana's Player Engagement Tracker, on Monday August 26, "Concord ranked 147th in US PS5 daily active players across all titles, with fewer than 0.2% of Monday's active PS5 players playing the game." And analyst Simon Carless, who authors the GameDiscover.co newsletter, estimated that Concord's total sales are sitting around 10,000 units on Steam, and around 15,000 on PlayStation (he responded to my email Wednesday, August 28, 2024).

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

25k x $43.00 is $1,075,000.00 more than Deadlock.

 

[ArtHands]

25k x $43.00 is $1,075,000.00 more than Deadlock.

Massive success for Sony Playstation 1st party AAA console exclusive blockbuster game

 

[jshackles]

VGInsights puts the steam number closer to 20,000

Video Game Insights – Games industry data and analysis

VG Insights is for developers, publishers and anyone interested in video game market research. Providing 50+ datapoints per game for over 50,000 games!

vginsights.com

Which means PS5 would be closer to 30,000, and the total would be 50,000. Even if the numbers are somewhere in the range of 25k-50k, that's still abysmal.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

PS download = 15,000 x $40 = $600,000
Steam download = 10,000 x $28 (after 30% cut) = $280,000
Total $880,000

Add in a tiny amount of store disc sales, and maybe you crack $1M.

Even if you double the sales copies, you get $2M.

And this game cost what to make? I estimated $50M days ago and people said that's too low. Maybe $100M?

 

[vaibhavpisal]

yuuge.gif

 

[Chupanibre]

What can they even do with this game at this point?

I feel like if they offered the game for free with a $50 Visa gift card on top that nobody would be interested.

 

[reinking]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

What can they even do with this game at this point?

I feel like if they offered the game for free with a $50 Visa gift card on top that nobody would be interested.

At this point, you either go F2P to at least get some gamers playing and maybe the mtx is enough to break even on daily operational costs.

Or, you just can it. But no game company cans a game after month. But I have no idea what the record shut down period is for a MP game (6 months? A year?). So maybe after Xmas, you pull the plug after 1-2 of their planned Season updates happen.

 

[Vyse]

Ouch.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

What can they even do with this game at this point?

Steps:

1. Go F2P. Follow Valorants unlocking characters with in game currency model.

2. Implement a number of QoL fixes. Example: Rivalry mode needs to be first to 6 or 7, not first to 4. Place all story cutscenes in a menu tab for easy access.

3. Launch a mode that's unique to Concord. The 6 modes they have are too basic to generate interest.

4. Fire character designer and create compelling Exotic and Legendary skins.

 

[nial]

What can they even do with this game at this point?

F2P in some months or so, and when that inevitably does not work out, Firewalk will get closed down. I mean, I'm not exactly looking forward to anyone losing their jobs, but Sony (or literally everyone else, really) doesn't play around with abysmal numbers like these, so it is what it is.

 

[LordCBH]

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[Unknown Soldier]

 

[MayauMiao]

For comparison:

 

[Robb]

 

[LordCBH]

For comparison:

Can confirm that redfall is indeed a better game. Shit. But better.

 

[diffusionx]

This might be the biggest disaster in Sony's entire history as a publisher.

F2P in some months or so, and when that inevitably does not work out, Firewalk will get closed down. I mean, I'm not exactly looking forward to anyone losing their jobs, but Sony (or literally everyone else, really) doesn't play around with abysmal numbers like these, so it is what it is.

F2P is not going to save this game, the word of mouth is so bad that people are not going to even bother trying it.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Steps:

1. Go F2P. Follow Valorants unlocking characters with in game currency model.

2. Implement a number of QoL fixes. Example: Rivalry mode needs to be first to 6 or 7, not first to 4. Place all story cutscenes in a menu tab for easy access.

3. Launch a mode that's unique to Concord. The 6 modes they have are too basic to generate interest.

4. Fire character designer and create compelling Exotic and Legendary skins.

Too little too late. A character designer will tell you they need a month (so equivalent of a few k) to work on a single skin, by that time the game will be dead.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Too little too late. A character designer will tell you they need a month (so equivalent of a few k) to work on a single skin, by that time the game will be dead.

Very well could be. I could also see the game having a relaunch, fixing a number of its issues, and seeing a modicum of success.

 

[Ozzie666]

Is that sold to retailers or actually in customers hands??

 

[semiconscious]

if only bungie had evaluated concord when they were done evaluating factions...

 

[Katatonic]

Can confirm that redfall is indeed a better game. Shit. But better.

 

[Fbh]

Damn, almost as many sales as there are genders

 

[Plague Doctor]

Op, yet another thread on this. Why GAF? You guys are making it out like this is a colossal failure by Sony and they lost hundreds of millions of dollars on decisions any layperson would have told them was objectively fucking dumb from the pitch. But sure GAF let's make another thread like this is one of 2024 biggest mistakes and was some sort of massive money hole that could have been avoided if we had competent people heading these companies.

Also, have you seen the premium asparagus skin tho? People will return for preemo drip like that and the body positivity him/her person. This is everything the modern audience have been asking for. All 187 of them. I read all their tweets. I can confirm this.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[.Xeno]

I doubt Fairgame$ will fair any better than this.

 

[adamsapple]

And this game cost what to make? I estimated $50M days ago and people said that's too low. Maybe $100M?

I think including marketing, mo-cap, those expensive CG's and the promise of delivering more every week, and just how expensive modern AAA game development is in general, it's gotta be comfortably above $100m.

 

[AGRacing]

Damn, almost as many sales as there are genders

Maybe a couple free dlc genders can turn things around. Perhaps a free gender code in a bag of Doritos.

 

[Plague Doctor]

I think including marketing, mo-cap, those expensive CG's and the promise of delivering more every week, and just how expensive modern AAA game development is in general, it's gotta be comfortably above $100m.

Yes, but are we including the cost of Sony purchasing the company part way through development as well?

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

Everyone at Firewalk should be polishing their resumes right now.

 

[adamsapple]

Yes, but are we including the cost of Sony purchasing the company part way through development as well?

Considering the acquisition was made on the promise of this game, I guess yes that can be added too.

Did they ever reveal how much the acquisition was?

 

[FoxMcChief]

Everyone at Firewalk should be polishing their resumes right now.

You mean erasing the last 8 years of their professional lives?

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

You mean erasing the last 8 years of their professional lives?

Yep, especially for the visual artists and character designers.

 

[TrueLegend]

At this point we go to the classic deal of developer and publisher paying me to play this game.

 

[Hero_Select]

Yikes, I think this is even worse than most were expecting

 

[Sleepwalker]

Considering the acquisition was made on the promise of this game, I guess yes that can be added too.

Did they ever reveal how much the acquisition was?

No and I bet they never will.

Fold this studio into another one and be done with it.

Oh and Sony, if you really want to make a fps multiplayer game, just make guerrilla go back to killzone instead of trying to make a horizon mmo happen.

 

[balls of snow]

Thats an roi of -99 million dollars.

 

[Gonzito]

Go woke get broke

 

[DragonNCM]

 

[nial]

F2P is not going to save this game, the word of mouth is so bad that people are not going to even bother trying it.

That was what I said, right.

 

[IAmRei]

PS download = 15,000 x $40 = $600,000
Steam download = 10,000 x $28 (after 30% cut) = $280,000
Total $880,000

Add in a tiny amount of store disc sales, and maybe you crack $1M.

Even if you double the sales copies, you get $2M.

And this game cost what to make? I estimated $50M days ago and people said that's too low. Maybe $100M?

100-200 M i think, because there are also CGI movie even just for few minutes, its expensive. And even just 3 years, consider paying $120.000-200.000 annually for lower to mid position, not counting higher ups. Assuming they deploys 50 people at minimum, it could escalating quickly to 100M. Not counting marketing and server, hardwares, daily needs, acommodation, event and such.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[apocaliptic]

25k x $43.00 is $1,075,000.00 more than Deadlock.

August monthly salaries are more than that

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I would be shocked if it's actually that many units sold... without even factoring in the impact of refunds. I realize the sales figures are abysmal, but I feel like that's too many for how many players the game has at this point.

Either way, it's a completely well-deserved failure that the developers earned on their own merits - not with our help.

 

[Mownoc]

The game has 8.5k ratings on PSN. It's surely sold more than 15k on PS5 unless we're saying over 50% of people bothered to rate the game.

Spiderman 2 for example has been rated by less than 2% of people who bought it. Helldivers 2 is somewhere between 1.5-2.5%.

Concord reviews may be a lot higher but I think saying 56% of people who bought it rated it is insane lol.

Sales are atrocious but it's probably much higher on ps5 than 15k.

 

[Negotiator101]

Can confirm that redfall is indeed a better game. Shit. But better.

Is it?

 

[Da1337Vinci]

I can see no path to recovery with these numbers. And because Concord is a drawer for gaming websites right now all its failure milestones will be make know to more and more people.

 

[Denton]

Quite incredible how much money these companies are just willing to burn

Anthem
Avengers
Hyenas
Forspoken
Saints Row
Gotham Knights
Callisto Protocol
Redfall
Gollum
Immortals of Aveum
Skull and Bones
Suicide Squad
Concord
Dustborn
Payday 3
Flintlock

flop after flop