Concord is going offline, with refunds being given to all who bought the game

In a move that is honestly quite surprising, PlayStation and developer Firewalk Studios have announced that Concord is going offline this Friday, with refunds being offered to all players. Digital players will get a refund via their store of purchase, in-store buyers will need to check with their stores refund policy.

This is an insane move as almost every other game that has had a rough launch has had its developers attempt to fix it. We saw that with Star Wars Battlefront II, Final Fantasy XIV, No Man’s Sky, Destiny 2, Street Fighter V, Diablo 3 and even Halo Infinite, all games that launched in ways that were not what players wanted and developers took the time to fix things. So we have had developers admit they launched an unliked game, but they almost always try to fix it, until now it seems.

The full statement, which is below, was provided by Ryan Ellis Game Director, Firewalk Studios via the PlayStation Blog.

Concord fans — we’ve been listening closely to your feedback since the launch of Concord on PlayStation 5 and PC and want to thank everyone who has joined the journey aboard the Northstar. Your support and the passionate community that has grown around the game has meant the world to us.

However, while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended. Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.

While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.

While not the same, as the game was not actually released, this is the second time in recent memory when a game was taken offline, after MultiVersus was pulled during its open beta. The developers took a year to further work on the game and then relaunched, but when they took that action they explained that they would be back, this time it is less clear.

Regardless of your thoughts on the game itself, I do want to highlight that the developers who spent years making the game are not at fault. For many of them it was a job, it is the leadership at the studio and behind the game who made the decisions about this project, which saw the end result players have had to play for a few weeks.

Will the game come back? What form might it take if it does? Those are questions we won’t have the answer to for a while if at all, so for now it might be the final farewell for the Northstar.