PlayStation Plus Could Be An Inevitable Saving Grace for Concord

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PlayStation Plus Could Be An Inevitable Saving Grace for Concord

Key Takeaways

  • Sony’s live-service plan faced setbacks, halving its planned game releases to 6 and cancelling The Last of Us multiplayer.
  • Unfortunately, the newly released Concord is also struggling to attract players for various reasons, launching with a low player count.
  • Still, if all else fails, bringing Concord to PlayStation Plus may increase the game’s player base and revenue, allowing it to better compete with other free multiplayer games.

As a seasoned gamer with over 25 years of gaming under my belt, I’ve seen my fair share of game launches and their subsequent successes or downfalls. The latest addition to this rollercoaster ride is Sony’s new hero shooter, Concord.

Since its unveiling, Sony’s bold roadmap for live-service games has been embroiled in controversy. Originally, Sony aimed to roll out at least a dozen first-party multiplayer live-service games by March 2026, as detailed in their February 2022 announcement. However, in November 2023, Sony revealed that the initial plan had been scaled back to only 6 projects. To make matters worse, just a month later, the highly anticipated multiplayer spin-off of ‘The Last of Us’ was called off. This suggested trouble brewing behind the scenes with Sony’s live-service strategy, yet remarkably, Firewalk Studios’ project, Concord, persevered undeterred.

In essence, the game called “Concord” is generally well-regarded as a robust hero shooter, featuring an array of modes, distinctive characters, and impressive visuals and audio design. However, it doesn’t appear to bring anything particularly innovative to the table, which seems to be causing some significant problems. A mere week after its launch, the player count for “Concord” is alarmingly low, suggesting that Sony might need to intervene with their PlayStation Plus service as a potential lifeline.

In The Face of Extinction, Concord Should Turn to PlayStation Plus

Concord’s Numbers Aren’t Looking Good

As a devoted admirer, I’ve got some concerns about the performance of “Concord” based on data from SteamDB, a generally trustworthy tracking site. At its peak, the game only managed to attract 697 players – quite low for a new release, and even more so for a PlayStation first-party title. This initial week’s response has been unusually disappointing in this genre. To add to the worry, five days after its Steam launch, there are just 130 players still engaged with “Concord”. Moreover, whispers are starting to circulate that PC gamers are having to wait over 8 minutes to find an online match. It’s a challenging start for the game, and I hope things pick up soon!

Of course, Concord has been marketed heavily as a PlayStation 5 game first and foremost, and these statistics only refer to the game’s performance on PC. There are no precise stats for how many players are on Concord on PS5, but the PlayStation Store’s best-selling list does paint a pretty grim picture for Firewalk’s hero shooter. Concord is currently sitting at the 39th spot on the PS Store’s best-selling list, being outsold by 38 other titles, many of which are several years old, and others aren’t slated for release for another few months.

Historically, games developed by PlayStation themselves have often remained in the top 10 of their own best-sellers for several months following release. This year’s Helldivers 2 serves as an excellent example. A live-service game like Helldivers 2, another PlayStation title, was the quickest-selling PlayStation game ever, and six months after its launch, it is three spots higher than Concord on the list of best-sellers. This ranking doesn’t account for physical sales, but it nonetheless offers a clear depiction of the game’s success.

How PlayStation Plus Can Save Concord

Since its debut, the cost of Concord has sparked continuous discussion. Unlike its peers such as Overwatch 2 and the upcoming Marvel Rivals, both free-to-play games, Concord comes with an initial price tag of $40. Despite the evident investment of time and effort by developers in creating Concord, a cost of $40 seems reasonable for such a product. However, this doesn’t match the market Concord currently operates in. With games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, Valorant, and Overwatch providing extensive multiplayer experiences at no charge, it’s hard to persuade players to pay for Concord.

However, here’s where PlayStation Plus might provide a solution. If they were to include ‘Concord’ as part of PlayStation Plus, it could present a viable exit strategy for the game, its creators, and Sony. This way, Sony would continue to generate income from ‘Concord’ through PlayStation Plus subscriptions, and the game might attract a broader audience by removing its $40 price tag.

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2024-08-31 02:05