[STEAM] With Concord's Servers Now Closed, Fans Wonder If It'll Return as Free-to-Play. At Least One Expert Has Doubts

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As of about 10:30am PT / 1:30pm ET on September 6, Concord's servers are officially closed. Sony's troubled live service game didn't even last two weeks, failing to fill its beta and launching to a

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. Ultimately it is estimated to have

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, which is extraordinarily low by first-party release standards.

Concord servers are now offline.

Thank you again to all the Freegunners who have joined us in the Concord galaxy.

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— Concord (@PlayConcord)

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, Circana executive director Mat Piscatella called Concord's shutdown "unprecedented," nothing that even Anthem was the best-selling game of February 2019 and is still playable today. Asked how it compares to the likes of The Day Before and Crucible, two other games that were shuttered soon after release, Piscatella said that this "one reads differently to me than anything that's come before," describing it as being "soundly rejected" by players.

It makes Concord one of the most remarkable news stories of the year — a first party release that ultimately never had a chance.

Does Concord have a future as a free-to-play game?

Still, at least some fans are wondering if there's a future for Sony's shooter. Could Concord work as a free-to-play game? That's been one of the main questions on platforms like X/

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and Resetera as fans debate the path ahead for Sony. Even before Concord shut down, Forbes writer Paul Tassi called its

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though wondered if it would change things.

There are certainly plenty of sticking points. The roster ******* to resonate with fans, and the art style and writing has variously been described as a kind of off-brand Guardians of the Galaxy. There's also little in terms of innovation to differentiate Concord from other hero shooters. In a market flooded with live service games, success is increasingly a zero sum game, and Concord was on the wrong side of the divide.

On the one hand, the game and the IP were just so soundly rejected of it that one may think it unsalvageable Nevertheless, we found points to like about Concord. In our

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, we described the competitive gameplay as "fantastic" and praised its map design. In its closing days, a collection of trophy hunters made a last second dash to try and grab what will soon be one of PlayStation's rarest Platinums, even going so far as to

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.

So will it return? One

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user opines. "I'm guessing it'll probably end up going F2P and then quietly shuttered if it doesn't find an audience quickly. Doing that's going to be a ***** of a task though as the game was designed around progress not being monetised. I feel terrible for Firewalk, all that time invested into what's apparently a pretty decent game to have this happen straight after launch. I have a horrible feeling that there's going to be some layoffs coming soon."

Piscatella, for his part, is uncertain. "On the one hand, the game and the IP were just so soundly rejected of it that one may think it unsalvageable. On the other hand, so few know about the game that perhaps it could be brought back with a different model and a significant refresh. I think this is an unprecedented situation, with all options on the table, so anyone's guess is probably as good as mine."

What's next for Sony

For what it's worth, Concord isn't completely finished. As we reported yesterday,

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, the upcoming Prime Video anthology series by Tim Miller that also features the likes of **** of War, Mega Man, and Warhammer 40K. While it seems unlikely that it will re-ignite interest in the property, it does represent at least one spark of life for the franchise.

The future of Firewalk Studios, for its part, is unclear. The studio behind Concord was established as part of ProbablyMonsters in 2018 and

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. Design director Josh Hamrick

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, thanking fans and signing off when the servers went down with "FREEGUNNER FOR LIFE."

At one point he wrote wistfully, "I started at Firewalk in the Spring of 2019. We were less than a dozen devs working shoulder to shoulder in a friend's attic."

Sony, meanwhile, has more free-to-play games on the way, including

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and

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. Marathon has already had its share of problems, at one point being

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. Little has been shown of Fairgame$ outside of a CG trailer, but

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Chris Dring recently said that he's been hearing positive buzz about the game. One way or another, the future of

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, though PlayStation can claim at least one victory thanks to the

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in the first part of the year (though it has also struggled of late).

For now, Sony can take comfort in Astro ****, which is both single-player and

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. As for whether Concord will ever get another chance of its own, we'll just have to see.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

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