Sony shuts down Concord’s developer Firewalk Studios

Sony is closing down the Firewalk Studios. The studio is responsible for the Concord game which is considered the biggest flop of the year.

The announcement came out on Sony’s website in a message by Hermen Hulst, the CEO of Playstation to his staff. The message also stated that along with Firewalk Studios, Sony will be shutting down Neon Koi, the studio behind mobile games.

Hulst stated in the email to its SIE employees that the decision had been put forward after months of consideration. Shutting down the studio permanently along with Concord is the “best path forward”.

The CEO also expressed his gratitude to the team of developers for their “craftsmanship, creative spirit, and dedication” in the process.

He elaborated that Concord by the Firewalk Studios failed to meet the ideal targets of the company. Therefore for future projects, PlayStation plans to “take the lessons learned from Concord” to improve the “live service capabilities” for better growth in the area.

Firewalk is signing off one last time.

Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
– Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was…

— Firewalk (@FirewalkStudios) October 29, 2024

Sony’s Concord was launched on August 23rd on both PS5 and PC. The game which had $400M invested in the development stage had to see a shutdown after its poor sales hardly reaching the number of 25,000 players. While the all-time high for the game was just 697 players on Steam.

210 jobs lost following the Firewalk and Neon Koi shutdown

According to a report by Bloomberg, the shutdown of these two companies will let go 210 jobs in total. 172 people of Firewalk will be losing their jobs, while a total of 38 people will be moving on from Neon Koi.

Neon Koi which was formerly named as Savage Game Studios, was acquired by Sony in 2022. The message by Hermen Hulst stated that mobile gaming is a “priority growth area” for Sony. However, the decision to shut it down while also canceling its unannounced triple-A mobile live-service action game is due to a “re-focused approach”.

Hermen has also acknowledged the talent that was involved in both studios. He stated that the company will make efforts to “find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible.”

By June 2024, the gaming industry had seen 11,000 known layoffs. The number has been increasing, reportedly reaching up to 14,000, exceeding the 2023 layoffs.