Concord allegedly cost Sony $400M and was meant to be PlayStation’s Star Wars

As a seasoned gaming enthusiast who’s witnessed my fair share of industry triumphs and flops, I can’t help but be captivated by the tale of Concord. With a reported $400 million price tag and ambitions as high as the galaxy far, far away, it seems this game was meant to be PlayStation’s Star Wars equivalent.


As per Colin Moriarty, a seasoned professional in the industry who allegedly interacted with a developer at Firewalk, it’s reported that Concord set back a grand total of $400 million and was envisioned as the next big thing for PlayStation, carrying an influence comparable to Star Wars.

After barely two weeks, Concord was temporarily shut down, becoming infamous for being one of the most significant failures in video game history. The game’s financial losses are estimated to be staggering, as every player who purchased it received a full refund. This previously unreported information is now made public.

According to Colin Moriarty, the overall production cost of the game was approximately $400 million. Initially, around $200 million was invested in its development, prior to Sony’s acquisition of Firewalk Studios. Following this acquisition, Sony reportedly spent an additional $200 million on the project.

He asserted that he engaged in an extensive discussion with a person involved in the project, who provided him with a substantial amount of details regarding the game’s problematic production process.

As a gaming enthusiast, I’ve had an in-depth chat with someone who was deeply involved in the development of Concord. Let me tell you, it’s even more troubling than you might imagine.

— Colin Moriarty (@longislandviper) September 20, 2024

According to Moriarty, it cost approximately $400 million to develop Concord, which entered the Alpha stage in the initial three months of 2023. However, Sony didn’t acquire the team until after this point.

Even to get it into Alpha, $200 million was spent on the game according to his source.

He went on to say, ‘When the game was first shown, it was clearly a mess. The Alpha version was nowhere near ready.’ He explained further, ‘The condition of the game was so poor that Sony decided they had to invest an additional $200 million, and then another $200 million, in order to bring it up to a playable state.’

In spite of the challenging manufacturing phase, as suggested by Moriarty, and the significant part of the project being delegated to external studios for expedited release, the internal feelings towards the project were marred by an overly optimistic outlook, often referred to as “toxic positivity.

Concord, the highly anticipated PlayStation title, is considered Sony’s ‘Flagship Project,’ with an ambitious vision so grand that it has been likened to the Star Wars series. This game is designed in such a way that players can return to it multiple times.

At present, the fate of Concord remains uncertain since its game servers have been shut down, and all purchased copies are being refunded. As a result, playing the game is no longer an option at this time.

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2024-09-20 20:30