The game director of Sony reportedly resigned after the company’s shocking decision to take live service hero shooter Concord down two weeks after its release, raising concerns among some employees about the studio’s future.
Ryan Ellis, who has been Concord’s game director since January 2018, reportedly informed workers that he was leaving the position to take on a support job (Kotaku).
The announcement that Concord will be taken offline was made on the PlayStation Blog, and it included Ellis’ name. Ellis stated that “we acknowledge that certain components of the game and our original launch did not land the way we would anticipate,” even if “many qualities of the experience connected with gamers.”
One of the worst video game mishaps in PlayStation history is Concord. The first-person shooter game went on sale on August 23 for $40 on PC and PlayStation 5, following years of expensive development. However, sales estimates for the game were only around 25,000, and its highest Steam concurrent player count was surprisingly low (Sony does not disclose PlayStation player statistics publicly). Within 11 days of Concord’s release, Sony took it off the market and gave refunds.
The 150-person Firewalk, which Sony purchased in 2023 for an undisclosed sum, is reportedly waiting nervously to hear what will happen to them, according to Kotaku. Some employees are reportedly dubious, despite Ellis’s statement that Firewalk would “examine options” suggesting Concord would return in some capacity. According to Kotaku, some have been asked to submit ideas for new games, some are afraid of huge layoffs or perhaps a studio closure, while yet others speculate they might be called in to assist build another Sony game.
Significant changes have already been made to Sony’s game division in 2024. It revealed a series of layoffs in February that will impact 900 employees or roughly 8% of the total PlayStation workforce worldwide. Many PlayStation studios were affected by the layoffs, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, and Firesprite; however, the London studio was most hit, receiving a notice of closure. Since then, as Destiny 2 struggles to find a commercial audience, Sony-owned Bungie has also seen severe layoffs.
The computer game Concord is no longer available, but it will still be accessible later this year as a part of Amazon’s adult animation anthology series called Hidden Level. However, Sony is being questioned hard about its live service offerings, which include Haven’s Fairgame$ and Bungie’s Marathon.
Out of the twelve live service games that were being developed, Sony President Hiroki Totoki promised to release only six last year; one of those games, which was based on The Last of Us, was already canceled.
