Concord Devs Tinker with PC Files, Spurring Free-to-Play Speculation

Failure to launch

by · Push Square

We haven't heard much from the Concord front in recent days, likely because it functionally no longer exists. Still, there is plenty of interest amongst the PlayStation faithful as to what developer Firewalk's ultimate fate will be, and the always-watching SteamDB has detected some small movement.

Now, we don't speak PC and thus don't understand what it all means, but irregularly, since being pulled offline and as recently as yesterday, changes have been made to Concord's game files on Steam (thanks, PSLS). Inevitably, this leads to community speculation (if not interest) that there's life in the game yet, that Concord could be gearing up to go free-to-play. However, it's doubtful that anything could scrub the stink off the allegedly hugely costly flop at this late stage. Regardless, we'll continue to monitor the situation.

Concord files are still being updated - via SteamDB
by u/theonewithcats in gaming

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Would you check out Concord if it was free-to-play? Would you spend money on cosmetic skins for all your favourite characters? Is the Sony that believed Concord was the "future of PlayStation" game enough to try again? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source playstationlifestyle.net]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 26

I’ll check it out if it’s free to play. Can’t promise I’ll stay long. Definitely won’t spend money on it.

If true I had a feeling it would happen. No way they would waste all that time just to move onto another project. This is their first game right?

Concordians, we are so back

@Nepp67 @Doctor_BK I'll have a look if it goes free to play. This is how it should have launched anyway. I have no problem if a game is free to play and is full of mtx's as the game has to have a means of supporting itself etc but full price games that are chock full of mtx's and season passes are a big no from me. I love diablo 4 but that season pass is just so wrong as you just can't earn enough in game credits to pay for the next pass. Warzone did it right and that grind for the tokens sucked me right in and I loved the game too. I think concord could become a hit if they implement a similar battle pass system akin to warzone but I doubt they will. Hopefully concord will become a success story for Sony.

Going free to play won't save concord now. The hive mind has already spoken. Nobody was interested in the open beta and the same will happen here.

@Northern_munkey Even if I do sometimes support those types of greedy games(I bought MW 2019 and MW2022) I agree entirely. I'm still not gonna play it if it goes free because I do not like the character designs at all and I have no care for hero shooters.

The move to free-to-play alone will not salvage the IP. It needs to be completely reworked. It needs better character designs, with likeable personalities and backstories. It needs more unique gameplay options. It needs so much tweaking of the core identity that it makes more sense to just have a new IP launch without the pre-existing baggage.

We'll see. Tax write off still seems to me like the most profitable way to salvage this situation - unless they can't of course.

I have my doubts that f2p will save this game anyway. It was such a complete rejection across the board that I cannot see the game building up anything more than a small cult following long term.

You couldn’t even PAY me to play that game 😂

It makes alot more sense for it to be free to play

I would play if I could play online. Maybe a nice and juicy black friday discount is in order

Be nice to see it not entirely confined to thr dumpster fire of history.

Despite the reception and the obvious out of date trend chasing by the developers there still seems to be something worthwhile in there.

At least drop it on to PS plus essential for a few months and let players have a copy for nothing.

S/O to all those people who stayed up all night to secure the platinum only for the game to be brought back.

Genuinely feel bad for the people involved on how bad this was received. All the marketing and plans for extra content. Can't even give it away 😅

Considering how poorly the free beta did, I'm not sure going free to play will change anything.

Just throwing more money down the drain with added dev cost and servers

John linneman of DF mentioned this also, but I think it would be amazing if this game came back, but making fun of itself in a kind of 4th wall breaking way. If it just absorbed all the meme energy and leaned into it. Would never happen, and would be incredibly difficult to pull off.. but the reward could be something totally unique and meta.

It's not only the ho hum gameplay but the characters themselves that people have a problem with. Sure they can just tweak some settings with a bit of work, speed people up, rebalance things etc...but going back and overhauling the characters themselves?

I really hope Sony still isn't listening to them and hoping it was just a fluke the first go around or Concord will have the distinct PlayStation honor of getting shut down twice.

Rumour has it that Concord will be given away free with every copy of Morbious sold.

It's the only way to save it now.

They're insane if they bring it back now. Do you really want to take the 99.9% risk that this flops AGAIN? Your tentpole first party title, flopping twice, that's what you want?

It's like re-releasing Morbius an-.... oh.

I value my time more than I value 40 bucks.
People didn't play this game because of the price, but because it encapsulates everything that is wrong with modern gaming.
Go and fail again Sony, I for one can't get enough of it

@Czar_Khastik you do make me chuckle, keep up the good work!

Maybe if they can rejig the art direction a bit to look like those animated shorts, alter the designs a bit too so character roles are more apparent (the healer looks nothing like a healer, etc.)

@AhabSpampurse Appreciate it mate, wish you a nice gaming weekend

I say let Sony try again with this slop if they think it can be save or deserves a second chance.

But if the F2P still end up as a failure, that way Sony higher up / shareholder has the ultimate reason to kick Hermen out from SIE.

I already tried it when it was free to play. That was the betas, of which I jumped into the second. Fewer people joined the second beta than the first, and even fewer then jumped in at launch. (At least on Steam.)

The truth of the matter is the game isn't good enough to compete with the big players. Its mechanic of having to play with a character from a particular class, then die, to unlock a perk for your next character, and so on, is completely borked. One, it rewards failure (dying); two, it means you're swapping character classes constantly, ruining any attempt at team composition; three, it is completely counter to the way real people interact with hero-shooters because it encourages you to play characters you don't prefer to build up the perks for the character you'd rather be playing as; and four, by the time you have done all that work of dying and unlocking perks, your team is probably miles behind on points and some other bugger on your team is probably playing as your main while they do all the above.

All that is to say nothing of how derivative and uninspired the game modes and characters are, etc, which is what I see most people complaining about. Yes, the guns felt good and the environments were pretty, but that's about all the game had going for it.

Sony should stop throwing good money after bad here and get Firewalk onto another project pronto.

Ironically, I think its historical failure gave it enough "publicity" that more people might check out an F2P re-launch out of curiosity, compared to the open beta.

That still only means a couple days of passable player numbers followed by another ghost town after said curiosity wears off, though. There's no salvaging this project, in my opinion.

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