Sony Comments on Concord Disaster, Says Game Should Have Been Tested Earlier

User testing and internal evaluation needed to be sooner

by · Push Square

Sony has claimed it should have been performing internal tests of Concord earlier than it was to spot the mistakes that led to its disastrous launch. Speaking during a Q&A session part of its latest Q2 financial earnings call, Sony president Hiroki Totoki said the firm is still going through a learning process in terms of live-service development, and the "gates" it has in place should have happened sooner.

The "gates" that Totoki is referring to relate to "user testing" and "internal evaluation", with his full quote reading (as per VGC): "Currently, we are still in the process of learning. And basically, with regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it."

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did." Totoki then refers to Sony has a "siloed organisation" and suggests it perhaps needs to go "beyond the boundaries of those organisations in terms of development, and also sales".

Concord did receive an open beta on PS5 and PC just prior to its release, but just like the full release, its player numbers were poor. On PC, the pre-release test peaked at just 2,388 concurrent players.

Earlier in the earnings call, senior vice president for finance and IR at Sony, Sadahiko Hayakawa, compared the success of Helldivers 2 with its Concord failure, noting: "We launched two live service games this year. Helldivers 2 was a huge hit, while Concord ended up being shut down. We gained a lot of experience and learned a lot from both."

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Hayakawa explained the learnings gained from this success and failure will be shared with Sony's internal development studios "so as to strengthen our development management system. We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan period that combines single-player games — which are our strengths and which have a higher predictability of becoming hits due to our proven IP — with live-service games that pursue upside while taking on a certain amount of risk upon release.”

While internal evaluations and tests taking place sooner will have only helped the project, it's generally agreed upon that the problems facing Concord weren't down to the quality of the actual game; it was more to do with releasing into an incredibly crowded online market at a $40 price point.

As we concluded in our Concord PS5 review: "Concord is a clean and well-meaning first-person shooter, with no shady business practices to boot. Its lack of real identity is an issue, and it’s difficult to determine just how much Sony is going to get behind it long-term." Sony gave Firewalk Studios 11 days, then took the game offline and shut down the developer for good.

[source videogameschronicle.com]

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About Liam Croft

Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he's found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.

Comments 64

Concord-gate(s)

character design should of been looked at..... like a lot more

Sony should put another studio to finish working on TLOU Factions instead of Naughty Dog scraping the project.

This is like saying sammy barker should of talk to Taylor swift earlier and he wouldn't have a chance.sammy didn't get biggie smalls one more chance.or vince mc mahon theme music no chance is what you got.checking it earlier would still flop at least make concord like destiny.and have a story campaign.with boss fights.concord would of done better.word up son

Looks like they live inside box and never go out, so they don't understand why Concord failed and are ready to make same mistakes again.

Sony needs to return to their past self, showing games years in advance, this allows them to also get public feedback.

I didn't see one good opinion of Concord before it launched, the mood for it was definitely ice cold. A few defended it when it came out, some of them saying enough for me to briefly consider it at sale time, but Sony definitely shot themselves in both feet with this one.
It's okay saying they should have done this, that or the other, but maybe they should learn to read a room before they worry about anything else. At least then they could have dropped it as free to play which may have enhanced uptake a smidge. It certainly would've removed one of the biggest rods for it's back.

I think it's a good response. It seems like they've learned a lot of the right lessons, and I doubt this will happen again to anywhere near the same extent.

As they rightly point out, Helldivers 2 was a huge hit. So they will have learned a lot from what went right there, and what went wrong with Concord.

Obviously replicating all this won't be easy, but they come armed with a lot more knowledge next time.

@djlard That's literally not what he said at all. They seem very aware of a lot of what went wrong here.

Can sony try twisted metal again ? i mean , since we’re talking about “crowded online market” and all, there’s nothing like twisted metal. the closest we got was destruction flop stars & that’s a straight up slap in the face to what we actually wanted. If they still want that live $ervice money twisted metal is perfect & it has good lore - they’d be killing like 3 birds with one stone with twisted metal - racing , car combat , co-op, single player . dare to dream! 😩😭

On the flip side i liked concord, their forceful agendas just ruined it . the gameplay/gunplay and flow of the game was solid. the boring maps & ulterior motives killed it.

Atleast Totoki here is showing a bit of self reflection and being self critical. Hulst, where you at!?

The amount of ads & popups on this site is crazy👎

Maybe I am totally dillusional. But why Sony needed to create such game as New IP? Why it couldnt start as Playstation All Stars type of PvP shooter? Imagine rooster of Kratos, Uncharted guys, TLOU, Astro Bot, and everyone else and it would start as that? And then you add brand new characters with Background. Even I would like to play something similar to that.

It couldn't be simpler. Technical team, very good. Design team, very bad.

@hbkay Please can you take a screenshot of what you're encountering and share with us using the contact form.

There really shouldn't be any pop-up ads.

@nomither6 what studio made wreckfest, maybe Sony could acquire them, or just look at live service games in a similar way. Smaller studios making small games that fill a gap in the market and can then go on to be successful with no real risk.

Sony make good business seem so hard lately 😅 like you say, surely SIE could easily make or license a Twisted Metal game for a good amount of success in that manner.

The article mentions that the main problem was its price point in an overcrowded market. But atleast half of the videos on it at the time were about it being “too woke”. So i’d say that was a main point as well. Considering its not even that bad a game, thats a bit depressing. I may not have been thrilled by all character designs, but I still cant find any real big faults with it. But thats probably because i find all these hero shooters to have bland character design. Which is ironic, cause that is supposed to be very important in these types of games, so people say.

Here is the next lesson that you need to learn: Insulting your playerbase on Twitter just makes things worse.

@get2sammyb I say this as someone who has every original UK launched PlayStation console and has had a large number of their A/V gear in the past; Sony have a track record of not learning lessons fast enough (if at all), or moving fast enough to ride a wave. They DO seem to like to flog a dead horse though, either that or take their ball home if things aren't working out as they'd hoped.
Personally I think they missed a trick and Concord should've been adapted to existing IP when they bought into the studio.

That one rumor of the game failing because of toxic positivity might hold some water now because what do you mean they never once thought of playtesting the game to see if it'll hit with the audience or not? Imagine if this was their mindset with all of theirblive service games 💀

Thought they bought Bungie specifically so that they wouldn't make such obvious mistakes.

This sounds like what the Bungie expertise was supposed to help with?

Shame they’re still pursuing the live service dream… for now.

All down to studio micro management, project milestones and having the right management on the job.
I’m just thankful Sony Studios teams are normally great at this and at least it was a studio GAAS game that went wrong and not say Sucker Punch etc for example with their big AAA single player games.

@Ravix I know right. i don’t even want to talk about it too much , it’s depressing to think about. i want old sony back so bad.

@SoulsBourne128 I was thinking the same. All this hand-washing by executives means nothing now. When there is a cultural issue within the dev team of NOT listening to feedback, you have no chance at success. Let alone feedback from players.

@REALAIS They didnt create it, the game was already in development when they got involved.

But i get what ure saying. I think they just really were afraid to try live service first for themselves and use their own IP.

What needs to be done is perhaps ask fans what they want to see in a live service game. I personally haven’t got too much interest in these types of games, but if I was to be part of the target audience, character design would be paramount. I would also think something with an amazing storyline that could be built upon would be good too, but it would have to be meaningful and add to the content. I always associate Sony with awesome storytelling, so with keeping with this, that may help them in building upon their live service dreams. If a lot more were shared with fans instead of keeping everything at Sony secret then public opinions could be garnered before releasing huge disasters. Also, I honestly cannot think that The last of Us factions game was a worse title than concord and that never got to see the light of day.

@LogicStrikesAgain yes, game was already started, but it wouldnt be hard to implement characters. I am guessing they wouldnt even try such game with own IP at all. It is just amusing for me. To have something similar to Marvel Rivals, where everyone is against everyone and having fun with characters they like the most.
Now all that game is dead, all that design will be thrown in bin, and even if they will return to similar game, they cant really use visually anything from there, because it will be straight away compared to their biggest fail.

Lets see what are they trying to create moving forward.

I am atleast happy, that they acknowledge their mistake and are stating, that they will try learn from that. Hopefully they will reallybunderstand what went worng and will not repeat it

Expensive..."learning". Hope they get student loan forgiveness in the next election.

@REALAIS I’d also like to see something with Playstation characters. Not necessarily live service. And maybe something in the same vein as Mario party/Fall guys. I think that might be cool

@LogicStrikesAgain Yeah, there are couple variants how to go about that. But that type of game would be great game to Celebrate history of Playstation and brave future ahead of us. Maybe for 40th Anniversary?

Less QA testing and more common sense testing from your average gamer. And as usual better management. Almost all issues can be solved with better management unless most of your staff are incompetent, they clearly weren't.

@Atreus97 unfortunately bungie don't know anything about arena hero shooters

It’s good that Sony retroactively recognized its errors here. Bland dime-store Guardians of the Galaxy designs did not a good game make.

> Astro Bot

  • Sold 1.5 million copies in 9 weeks since release
  • 94% at metacritic
  • GotY candidate
  • Tons of people loves it
  • It's an AA game with 3 years devs cycle & 60 people.
    VS
    > Concord
  • Sold 25K copies
  • 62% at metacritic
  • Got shutdown in just two weeks
  • Most people doesn't want it
  • Hundreds of million down the drain
  • An astronomical failure and a big stain for SIE / PS records

Totoki, you already got the recipe for success so don't repeat another Concord.

@PuppetMaster Astro Bot hasn't been out for 9 months..... But I still get your point, Sony NEEDS to make more games like that!

@Oram77 Oops i mean 9 weeks lol. Fixed now. Thanks for the correction.

@get2sammyb “ I think it's a good response. It seems like they've learned a lot of the right lessons, and I doubt this will happen again to anywhere near the same extent. “

That was my reaction when I saw you closed the comments, or perhaps more accurately never opened them, on the tariffs article. 😂

Live service games seem to need player access way earlier on than single-player games - if nothing else because the game loop has to be so rock solid and the risks are so high.

Look at Valve - by the time one of their live service games "launches" everyone has already been playing it in closed beta for months.

Wait. An unproven developer with a brand new IP building a paid multiplayer-only title in a crowded market dominated by F2P titles should have performed alpha and beta testing? What incredible insight.

The fact they still need to learn this is all you need to know about how well Sony's live service development process is going and their hubris.

@PuppetMaster While I agree with you completely as a consumer, the reality is that with a live service game, they can fail multiple times, and have just one success, and still make a lot more money at the end of the day than if they had many single player successes.

The only way this live service craze ends is when the cost of the failures far exceeds the theoretical profit from success. In a real way, Sony (and similar) are playing a game akin to the loot boxes they adore. As long as every now and then they get something decent, they will keep rolling for that big prize.

@ThomasHL Exactly this.

The fact they thought they could launch a multiplayer game from an unproven developer with a new IP without any serious amounts of player testing and feedback??

Concord could have been "the new Sony" by showing up on the market as another early access title that looks to grow and learn and deliver on what fans want. Soooooo many multiplayer games do this nowadays. Why does Sony think it's better than what is proving to be successful for many competitors already in-market?

I dispute that Concord was good. Sure, I only played the second Beta, but the characters were all too slow, the team-mechanics were awful and discouraged collaboration to build a well-rounded team, the game-modes were all copy-pastes from better games, and the maps were dull and repetitive.
The graphics were good (though wasted on horrible art direction), and that's about all that could be said about it in my opinion.

Three cheers to Sony trying to put something in place to catch duds like Concord sooner in development and put them out of their misery before too much is lost.

@LifeGirl That was one employee from 150, a studio is not a monolith there's obviously some that will be more mentally unstable then others. Now if you say the company should have released a statement apologizing for that rogue employee then I agree.

@thedevilsjester I really doubt that Sony are okay to lost multiple $400+ million as well put their first party studios in the chopping block from messing around with live service games.

Sure Sony made profits right now and one of the biggest factor is thanks to their single player games that help people to spend their money on PS brand.

But if Sony didn't answer the fans request and keeps losing hundreds of millions over and over and over from crappy live service games, not just PS brand will looks bad in consumers / PS fans eyes but Sony will lost shareholders too which is probably one the biggest nightmare for Sony.

Oh well, I'll buy the IP if you don't want it Sony.

Thing is they were getting feedback about how bad the character design was when they released the trailer in 2023, but as usual gamers are ignored.

@PuppetMaster Currently Fortnite makes $26 BILLION a year (as of 2023). Thats $71 million per month. When taken into context, a $200+ million failure (over multiple years)? That's barely a blip. Sony can easily eat a dozen Concords for the chance at a single Fortnite. This is the golden goose they are chasing.

They do risk devaluing their reputation; but they are trying to buffer this with AAA single player games.

To be clear, I am not excusing what they are doing, just putting it in context.

Or here’s an absurd idea… show the game to your buyers sooner. The art direction was roasted the moment everyone saw it and you likely would have seen the writing on the wall if anyone knew anything about the game. We didn’t even know what kind of live service this was until way too close to release.

Whether Sony likes it or not they’re in sales and these days people clearly aren’t going to blindly buy whatever you’re making. You need to SELL it first.

The mistake was having Herman Hulst as a co-CEO and hyping this game from the start as the "Future of Playstation" on his hubris.

It's good this happened so early. It was a big waste, but they can really analyse this and avoid future failures. Not that it matters to me, I don't own Sony stock or something xD
I WOULD like them to keep existing in a strong position though as it's my preferred console manufacturer^^

8 years, $400M invested, and they didn’t have the decency to test Concord in time!?!?! LOL 🤣🤣

Had they tested the game 5 years ago, they would’ve been back at square one, which would’ve been the sensible choice

So he claims they are in learning process, yet they let the whole team, the same team that gathered a lot of experience in making a service game - go?

Sounds about right - did they also let the guy go that greenlit the whole thing or did he get a raise and flowers?

They can try asking and hiring actual gamers instead of freak activists and losers who have no business being in the industry. But that would required then to admit they gave been wrong for over a decade now. Keep doubling down and so will gamers. Our wallets are closed too this ***** and until they stop they will continue to fail

@get2sammyb They may be aware, but will make same mistake...

So basically what I am hearing is: they didn't learn anything from that failure, nor do they actually even have a clue why it failed.

An interesting glimpse into the somewhat delusional/oblivious and non-fan facing minds of the corporate goons.

I really hope that Sony visits Jade Raymond as soon as possible so that they find out if I am correct in saying Fair games is vapourware.

This was not a bad game. The problem is: this was a game no one wanted.
There is a saturation of Live-Service games, and it gets even worse when it is not free-to-play, and it looks so similar to other f2p games.
The quality was there in every aspect of it, but the demand was not.

"If only we started polishing the turd earlier we would've had a major hit."

@get2sammyb I'm afraid I disagree, Sammy. To me, Sony sound a lot like they have their heads buried in the sand. There's so much that went wrong with Concord that is not being alluded to here.

I know, I know... to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The culture war can get tiring, but culture might as well be all that matters at the end of the day, because it permeates everything whether we like (or see) it or not.

The tidal shift is too big to ignore at this point.

Sony excuses...it was a disaster simply because they tried to charge for what should have been a Free to play title from the very beginning.

If they had learned anything then perhaps the Sony big shots who greenlighted the thing should face consequences too, but it seems like these guys only ever mange to fail upwards.

It's not enough to shut the studio. Heads should roll at Sony.

It didn't need testing.

It's a hero shooter. It lives and dies on its heroes being appealing and gathering a passionate following of fans.

It only took one glance to tell that they were ugly and unappealing.

The "big shots" that Perturbator refers to above, get paid the big bucks to know the market and spot something like that immediately. They failed. They need to go.

But hey, it's not my company so they can do what they like...

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