Gamers Have Been Forecasting Sony's New Shooter 'Death' Since Its Release. Analysts Estimate Sales and Point out Reasons for Concord's Failure

Source: Sony Interactive Entertainment.

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Update (September 2nd, 1:20 a.m. PT)

IGN asked gaming industry analysts about the main reasons for Concord's failure. Their conclusions seem obvious – poor marketing, too strong and largely free-to-play competition, and the release being overshadowed by Black Myth: Wukong. At the same time, they note that "Concord is a perfect example of the dangers of AAA companies chasing trends, especially with how long game development cycles have become."

Simon Carless, author of the GameDiscover.co newsletter, estimates that the total sales of Concord are approximately 25,000 copies, including 10,000 units on Steam and about 15,000 copies on PlayStation (as of August 28).

Original news (August 24, 2:29 a.m. PT)

Concord, the shooter, made its debut on the market yesterday, i.e. on August 23rd. The game, published by Sony, is unique in that it doesn't feature a paid battle pass at launch or in the future. Is this enough to attract players? For now, it seems that this move isn't working... but more on that in a moment.

1. Concord is available on PlayStation 5 and PC.
2. The title can be purchased in the PlayStation Store, on Steam, and in the Epic Games Store.
3. The basic version of the game is priced at $39.99, while the Deluxe Digital Edition costs $59.99 (PC) and $59.99 (PS5).

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the system requirements of Concord (previously, we only provided the system requirements suggested for beta tests).

Concord - minimum PC system requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 10
2. Processor: Intel Core i7-7700K or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
3. RAM: 8 GB
4. Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
5. DirectX: version 12
6. Storage: 35 GB available space

Concord - recommended PC system requirements

1. Operating system: Windows 10
2. Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
3. RAM: 16 GB
4. Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
5. DirectX: version 12
6. Storage: 35 GB available space

The "death" of Concord is just a matter of time

As I mentioned above, the release of Concord is far from perfect. The game's premiere went completely unnoticed, as evidenced by the popularity charts of the title visible in the Steam database. At the peak of the last 24 hours, only 697 people were playing the shooter. At the time of writing this news, Concord is currently running on the accounts of 237 users of Valve's platform.

The game might be enjoying slightly more popularity on PS5. The data from this platform isn't publicly available, so these are just assumptions.

In any case, these results should not come as a surprise to anyone, given the low level of interest the open beta received when no one had to pay for access to the game. Now that you have to spend at least $39.99 to play, it's hard to expect the game to become a hit on par with Helldivers 2.

As for the game's reception, there also hasn't been a spectacular success. The average industry critics' rating for the console version of the game on Metacritic is 68/100 (based on 6 reviews). Journalists in their reviews write, among other things, that Concord "has a few interesting ideas," but "poor game design and average level design make it, not the best item."

Concord fares slightly better in the eyes of gamers – out of 287 reviews posted on Steam, 75% are positive. Players especially praise the game's humor. Also deserving a plus in their eyes is the abandonment of ubiquitous microtransactions. There are also opinions among the comments that Concord is the best alternative to Destiny 2 and Overwatch.

However, there is also a second camp of players who predict a quick "death" to the title that has been in development for 8 years. They explain their hostility towards the game by pointing to poor character design that isn't memorable. The decision to make Concord a paid production was also met with criticism. According to players, this game should be free and perhaps it would then attract more people.

Does the game still have a chance to bounce back from the bottom? We will find out about this over time.

1. Concord on Steam