Concord’s preliminary growth deal was round $200 million based on a report by Kotaku, providing a glimpse of how a lot it price Sony to develop its disastrous reside service recreation, which lasted simply two weeks earlier than being unceremoniously shuttered.
Kotaku’s report, which cites two sources conversant in the settlement, says that the $200 million was not sufficient to fund Concord’s complete growth, nor did it embody the acquisition of the Harmony IP rights or Firewalk Studios itself. Kotaku’s quantity aligns with an earlier report saying that ProbablyMonsters — Firewalk’s authentic dad or mum firm — raised $200 million in 2021.
Firewalk is signing off one final time.
Firewalk started with the concept of bringing the enjoyment of multiplayer to a bigger viewers. Alongside the best way we assembled an unbelievable crew who had been in a position to:
– Navigate rising a brand new startup right into a crew throughout a world pandemic: Firewalk was…— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024
Firewalk’s goodbye submit sheds extra mild on its growth prices. Trying again on the studio’s historical past, the word displays on being a brand new startup through the world pandemic, and the way Harmony solely entered full manufacturing in 2022. It additionally talks about constructing a “new, personalized subsequent-technology FPS engine in Unreal 4 -> 5, delivering prime-tier gameplay really feel, stunning worlds, and a performant 60fps technical expertise on a steady and scalable backend on PS5 and PC to a whole bunch of hundreds of gamers in our beta.”
It all factors to Harmony being seen as an formidable venture that was anticipated to draw a big viewers. As an alternative it launched to tepid critiques and low curiosity, prompting PlayStation to tug the plug inside days of launch. One estimate advised it solely bought round 25,000 copies.
Midia Analysis Analyst Rhys Elliott informed IGN shortly earlier than Harmony was shut down, “Pivoting to reside providers is excessive-danger, excessive-reward enterprise, and the danger is heightening to ranges that may not be value it for a lot of AAA console/PC publishers that aren’t already energetic within the house.”
Harmony is hardly the one costly reside service recreation to fail to fulfill expectations, with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League going through comparable struggles. Reside service video games are more and more going through a calcified market dominated by the likes of Fortnite and Name of Responsibility whereas costing a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands {dollars} to make. Regardless of that, PlayStation continues to wager large on service video games, with Fairgame$ and Marathon among the many initiatives subsequent on the docket.
PlayStation Studios CEO Hermen Hulst says Sony will study from its expertise with Firewalk Studios. “The PvP first individual shooter style is a aggressive house that’s constantly evolving, and sadly, we didn’t hit our targets with this title. We are going to take the teachings realized from Harmony and proceed to advance our reside service capabilities to ship future development on this space.”
Kat Bailey is IGN’s Information Director in addition to co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Ship her a DM at @the_katbot.