Sony on Concord’s Failure: ‘We Won’t Make the Same Mistakes Again’

by
William D’Angelo
, posted 15 hours ago / 2,015 Views

Sony Interactive Entertainment last year quickly delisted Concord following the games launch and ultimately shut down developer for the game Firewalk Studios.

PlayStation Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst during Sony’s Business Segment presentation and fireside chat stated they have learned their lessons from Concord‘s failure.

“There are some unique challenges associated [with live service titles],” Saud Hulst (via Game Developer). “We’ve had some early successes as with Helldivers II. We’ve also faced some challenges, as with the release of Concord.

“I think that some really good work went into that title. Some really big efforts. But ultimately that title entered into a hyper-competitive segment of the market. I think it was insufficiently differentiated to be able to resonate with players. So we have reviewed our processes in light of this to deeply understand how and why that title failed to meet expectations—and to ensure that we are not going to make the same mistakes again.”

Hulst added PlayStation Studios has implemented a more rigorous process for validating its creative, commercial, and development assumptions and hypothesis. 

“We do that on a much more ongoing basis,” he stated. “That’s the plan that will ensure we’re investing in the right opportunities at the right time, all while maintaining much more predictable timelines for Marathon.”

He said Marathon test cycles  have yielded “varied” feedback and the mixed impressions have been “super useful.”

He added, “That’s why you do these tests. The constant testing and constant revalidation of assumptions that we just talked about, to me, is so valuable to iterate and to constantly improves the title. So when launch comes we’re going to give the title the optimal chance of success.”

The next big live service game from PlayStation is Bungie’s Marathon, which will launch for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on September 23. 

A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.

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