The recently shut down PS5 shooter Concord reportedly cost $400 million to make, according to Sacred Symbols podcast host Colin Moriarty. While the title was referred to as “the future of PlayStation” internally, the studio’s culture of “toxic positivity” hindered its development.
Concord was potentially Sony’s most expensive game to make
In a recent episode of Sacred Symbols, host Colin Moriarty claims someone who worked on Concord reached out to him about the game’s demise. Overall, it seems a total of $400 million dollars was spent developing the project. How that money is distributed between Sony and other parties involved is a bit of a mystery. It’s also unclear if this number includes Sony purchasing the studio, which would naturally inflate it.
“In the first quarter of 2023, Concord had basically entered an alpha state. This was before Sony had even purchased the team, but Sony had been working with ProbablyMonsters, which was the original owner of Firewalk . . . probably since late 2020, maybe 2021 at the latest,” says Moriarty.
“The game was in development before that. Up to the point that the game went into alpha state, they had already spent around $200 million on it. And it’s unclear how much of that money is from ProbablyMonsters and the original investors of the game, and how much of that money is from Sony.”
After $200 million was spent to bring Concord into alpha, it was in “laughable shape.” So much so that Sony spent another $200 million between the first quarter of 2023 and its launch date.
“When the alpha was ready to go, and they were kind of being like, you know, we’re ready to kind of get moving towards getting this thing out in the next year or two, it was in such horrible shape that Sony felt like they needed to spend that much money again,” Moriarty continues. He then clarifies that this extra $200 million was used just to get Concord to reach a viable selling status.
Moriarty also claims Concord is the biggest game Sony has ever released from a budgetary standpoint. This would surely make it Sony’s biggest loss in gaming.
A possible reason for Concord’s abrupt disappearance was the culture surrounding it. According to the source, toxic positivity plagued the development, not allowing anyone to change or improve what was there.
“A major thing about the game is that there was . . . a toxic positivity vibe. You aren’t allowed to say anything apparently internally about this game,” says Moriarty. “About how something is wrong with it, character designs are not right, and so on and so forth. They really, truly believed.”
I can corroborate the part about toxic positivity. Some sources I've spoken with blamed a head in the sand mentality carried over from the studio's Bungie roots.
— AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) September 20, 2024
A sense the game would come together because the team was too good to fail. I'll have more next week. https://t.co/F9y87aEEFp
Kotaku’s Ethan Gach also backed up the toxic positivity problem. It was said to be rooted in a “Bungie Magic” philosophy in that the game would eventually come together as the team was too talented to create something bad. Gach said he’ll have more to share next week regarding the development.
Concord servers went offline earlier this month. Players who purchased the game either physically or digitally received a refund. Due to its uncertain future, the developers at Firewalk Studios are reportedly are preparing for mass layoffs, and even a potential closure.
(Source: Sacred Symbols)
