2K Games fires studio head after disappointing Project ETHOS (AKA Concord 2) reveal

DonkeyPunchJr

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb

2K Games has fired 31st Union president Michael Condrey after the studio's long-awaited online multiplayer game Project Ethos was revealed last fall to little fanfare or apparent player interest, according to two sources familiar with the studio. The project's fate is now unclear, although 2K, which is publishing Borderlands 4and Mafia: The Old Country later this year, says it remains "very committed" to both Project Ethos and the studio behind it.
Click to expand...

Condrey, who previously co-founded Sledgehammer Games, was removed as studio head at 31st Union earlier this week on February 3, according to two sources, but 2K says he will continue advising the project. The leadership change comes as parent company Take-Two prepares to announce its quarterly earnings on February 6. The company, which is planning to release Grand Theft Auto 6 later this year, has a history of announcing project cancellations as write-downs in its quarterly results.
Click to expand...

Project Ethos' announcement and closed beta tests also came shortly after the high-profile collapse of Concord, Sony's expensive first-party sci-fi hero shooter that was retroactively unreleased with full refunds to players less than two weeks after coming out. While some live-service projects have still found success, like the Overwatch-inspired Marvel Rivals, which is still one of the most played games across console and PC months after releasing, many more have struggled to gain any traction in the current hyper-competitive environment.
Click to expand...


^ IGN's glowing preview of the game. Hope it still gets released so we can have another Concord!
 
BosmerCulter said:
It's incredible to see how the 3 heads behind Dead Space has fallen

Glen Schofield -> Callisto Protocol

Bret Robbins -> Immortals of Aveum

Michael Condrey -> this...thing
Click to expand...

Face Reaction GIF by Universal Music Africa
 
It's okay guys this will probably die on the vine but we still have Fairgame$. No way Sony will throw that away, so we are getting a release. I expect it to be far more woke than Concord.

It's funny to think that Sony will eventually have to release this game. It's kinda like Disney having to release Snow White. If they could, they would probably scrap these projects, but they can't so they can only delay and try to release them under the radar and take the hits. Fairgame$ launch is going to be an incredible day.
 
This is literally the first I've heard of it. I haven't even seen anyone dunking on it before. Truly bleak if you can't even manage to get people to care enough to bitch about your game on the internet.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
I really hope it gets released so we can see how low the player count goes.
Click to expand...

That is the new gaming meta: we watch how few players a game gets. I suppose when a game releases to zero players it will be game over, unless we somehow can find a way to get a game to negative players. Now that would be something special!

tfw GIF
 
llLeonhart said:
I don't even think it's DEI's fault with this one. This looks absolutely generic and horrendous.
Click to expand...
I dunno, seems like they tried to follow the trends and make the safest, most derivative game they could. And I bet you they bought into the "gamers are diverse and they want diversity in their games" DEI snake oil.
 
llLeonhart said:
I don't even think it's DEI's fault with this one. This looks absolutely generic and horrendous.
Click to expand...
To be fair, a bad game is a bad game and nothing else is to blame.

This looks like the most carbon copy of whatever is hot right now with absolutely no passion at all. It had failure written all over it.
 
Last edited:
Calico345 said:
That is the new gaming meta: we watch how few players a game gets. I suppose when a game releases to zero players it will be game over, unless we somehow can find a way to get a game to negative players. Now that would be something special!

tfw GIF
Click to expand...
You'd need to invent a game like Sword art online, but where the game pre-emptively kills you when you try to buy it vs when you play it.
 
DonkeyPunchJr said:
^ IGN's glowing preview of the game. Hope it still gets released so we can have another Concord!
Click to expand...

Within the first 30 second Stella is already critizing the game.
The more the video goes on its gets worse.....a game being called "fine" or "unexciting" isnt a complement, saying it feels like it should have come out in 2019(when the studio was formed) is actually kinda harsh, calling multiple parts of it frustrating is a straight up negative, saying the second game mode legit only has one thing that works.....pheww this game needed to go back to the drawing board.
IGN saying they were left disappointed in a preview is usually a very very bad sign.





How did you assume this was a glowing preview?


On Topic

Following the Extraction shooter trend mixing it with Hero Shooter mechanics and using the Fortnite artstyle......damn that derivative as fuck.
They basically looked at popular games in 2019 and said "Yes".
XYJmZtO.gif


It was way way too late coming out.
 
MiguelItUp said:
To be fair, a bad game is a bad game and nothing else is to blame.

This looks like the most carbon copy of whatever is hot right now with absolutely no passion at all. It had failure written all over it.
Click to expand...
Very true, I don't play Fortnite, and to me, this looks like a very poorly made fortnite mod.
 
Are we still just slapping the woke label on anything with black people in it?

The game itself from watching the "glowing" IGN video shows some interesting ideas wrapped in the most generic fortnite wrapper. No wonder not many gave it a second look.
 
BosmerCulter said:
It's incredible to see how the 3 heads behind Dead Space has fallen

Glen Schofield -> Callisto Protocol

Bret Robbins -> Immortals of Aveum

Michael Condrey -> this...thing
Click to expand...
And even more funny is that EA actually made a pretty good remake of Dead Space 1 without any of them involved.
 
Videogame artists
"We are threatened by AI and the damage it will do to the industry by removing the unique human touch and creativity that can't be replicated"

Also Videogame artists:
4388364-breezenbangs.jpg
 
Fbh said:
Videogame artists
"We are threatened by AI and the damage it will do to the industry by removing the unique human touch and creativity that can't be replicated"

Also Videogame artists:
4388364-breezenbangs.jpg
Click to expand...
What's wild to me is talking about how AI is a threat and trash, while producing art that looks like it was AI generated. Just like Concord, lol.
 
Wow. I dont even remember this game being shown. Even 2k getting into the MP shooter mix. Going by the games montage on their website, it looks like the last traditional competitive MP shooter they made was Battleborn.

They got other shooter focused games like Bioshock and Evolve, but those are different.
 
Last edited:
Zacfoldor said:
It's okay guys this will probably die on the vine but we still have Fairgame$. No way Sony will throw that away, so we are getting a release. I expect it to be far more woke than Concord.

It's funny to think that Sony will eventually have to release this game. It's kinda like Disney having to release Snow White. If they could, they would probably scrap these projects, but they can't so they can only delay and try to release them under the radar and take the hits. Fairgame$ launch is going to be an incredible day.
Click to expand...
They might as well just cancel it. Not worth risking another Concord fiasco again.
 
llLeonhart said:
I don't even think it's DEI's fault with this one. This looks absolutely generic and horrendous.
Click to expand...
Agreed but that's already starting to be where things are headed.

This game looks like the derivative Sony movie of video games. You know the ones. They suddenly appear, seem like a concept that fully copied another popular project, bomb in the summer, and suddenly slither away to Netflix a month later.

It screams business suit.
 
BosmerCulter said:
It's incredible to see how the 3 heads behind Dead Space has fallen

Glen Schofield -> Callisto Protocol

Bret Robbins -> Immortals of Aveum

Michael Condrey -> this...thing
Click to expand...

They got out of an abusive relationship with EA, and then proceeded to go down a bad path.

If only EA has treated them right. Fuck EA.
 
BosmerCulter said:
It's incredible to see how the 3 heads behind Dead Space has fallen

Glen Schofield -> Callisto Protocol

Bret Robbins -> Immortals of Aveum

Michael Condrey -> this...thing
Click to expand...
Callisto is underrated and an amazing game as long as you're not playing it expecting Dead Space...since it's a melee brawler more than a shooter,something that apparently few understood when the game launched and were dissapointed by the media's falsely created expectations always comparing it to Dead Space ...
 
Fbh said:
Videogame artists
"We are threatened by AI and the damage it will do to the industry by removing the unique human touch and creativity that can't be replicated"

Also Videogame artists:
4388364-breezenbangs.jpg
Click to expand...


It's so obvious these designs are AI-generated, the same as every other game with similar-looking characters. Blizzard already showed off a diverse character creator tool, I'm sure they aren't the only ones with that crap so it always produces the same results.
 
Last edited:
BosmerCulter said:
It's incredible to see how the 3 heads behind Dead Space has fallen

Glen Schofield -> Callisto Protocol

Bret Robbins -> Immortals of Aveum

Michael Condrey -> this...thing
Click to expand...
Its almost as if AAA games arent made only by 3 people

Even huge "auteurs" such as Kojima and Ken Levine knows this, having the same people working for them for decades.

Put Kojima as the studio head in Bioware, under EA, and I doubt he would be able to make masterpieces.

Most heads dont have the money backing them like Kojima has, so they have to deal with shit teams and terrible publishers to have a paycheck.
 
Last edited:
Fbh said:
Videogame artists
"We are threatened by AI and the damage it will do to the industry by removing the unique human touch and creativity that can't be replicated"

Also Videogame artists:
4388364-breezenbangs.jpg
Click to expand...
Notice it's always a woman of color as the lead anymore. How about an Asian woman for once if it has to always be a woman? Not diverse enough I guess to the woke weirdos.
 
Moriarty1889 said:
Notice it's always a woman of color as the lead anymore. How about an Asian woman for once if it has to always be a woman? Not diverse enough I guess to the woke weirdos.
Click to expand...
Most of the time, it's specifically a black person too. If devs wants to promote diversity go ahead.

But notice how western studios almost always ignore Asian, East Indian, Native Indian and USA's biggest minority group Latinos in their games. Especially as leads. It's like their games involve whites and blacks 99% of the time and that's it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

First Footage of PROJECT ETHOS, New Medieval IP from 2K.
Clickbait  2 3
134
7K
SportsFan581 replied
Speculation about Project Century so far is all wrong, RGG Studio head says
26
2K
Hunter 99 replied
After Switch 2 reveal let me introduce you to PC handhelds
2 3 4 5
246
10K
pulicat replied
Concord 2
2
77
4K
BennyBlanco replied
Jason Shreeier: One reason to wait 2.5 months after Switch 2 reveal is for 3rd parties to reveal their games
2
69
4K
Tams replied
Top Bottom