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Concord bombs on Steam with less than 1k players on launch day

MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
clarky said:
We can argue what is triple A and what isn't but thats a boring ass conversation.

Fact is Sony themselves called it a AAA game.

I wasn't aware that there are different levels of AAA until tonight.
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Yeah, I've never heard anyone say otherwise. AAA reflects the cost of development and then some, if this is considered a AAA (and it was on numerous occasions) that means the budget was not cheap, by any means. You can DEFINITELY see it in the facial animations and then some. A lot of work was clearly put into it. But that's what makes everything that much sadder. Because it looks and feels like the money and effort went to certain areas, while really neglecting some important ones.

James Sawyer Ford said:
I don’t care man, call it what you want, it’s not multiple hundreds of millions to make the game
Click to expand...
It actually really is possible. Especially a "AAA" online multiplayer game. If it was much cheaper we'd see things much differently these days.
 
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clarky

clarky

Gold Member
StreetsofBeige said:
Leave it to video game employees acting weird on social media.

If Nestle launches a shitty chocolate bar and it gets grilled and discontinued, I'm pretty sure none of the 270,000 employees will call out any consumers who hated it. You wont see one R&D guy, marketing/product manager or anyone close to the product going ape shit on social media.
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Wonka nailed it by banning the Umpa Lumpas from twitter. Sony should take note.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Ass of Can Whooping said:
You're on SonyGaf. Rats don't decide when to move on
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feelsgoodman.jpg

dpu8dss.png
 
Sonik

Sonik

Member
James Sawyer Ford said:
AAA multiplayer game and “massive AAA production” single player game are not the same thing, home slice
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Hyenas cost 100 million to make and it wasn't even close to being released, this trash took 8 years to make and they finished it, it definitely cost at the very least tens of millions of dollars. So yeah, it's an AAA game and the idiots at Sony wasted millions upon million on an obviously doomed project
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
blog.playstation.com

Welcoming Firewalk Studios to the PlayStation Studios family

Learn more about this talented team and their plan to connect players in new and innovative ways in their ambitious upcoming multiplayer game.
blog.playstation.com blog.playstation.com

Hermen HulstHead of PlayStation Studios

I’m excited to announce that we’ve expanded our relationship with Firewalk Studios and are thrilled to welcome them to PlayStation Studios. Firewalk is home to a remarkably talented team of creatives who have launched some of gaming’s most celebrated experiences, and they’re already hard at work on their first original AAA multiplayer game for PlayStation.

Since announcing our publishing partnership with ProbablyMonsters and Firewalk in 2021, we continue to be impressed by the team’s ambitions to build a modern multiplayer game that connects players in new and innovative ways. The studio shares our passion for creating inspiring worlds grounded in exceptional gameplay, and we want to continue to invest in their mission. We’re excited for Firewalk to bring their technical and creative expertise to PlayStation Studios to help grow our live service operations and deliver something truly special for gamers.

Please join me in welcoming Firewalk!
 
kaizenkko

kaizenkko

Member
James Sawyer Ford said:
I don’t care man, call it what you want, it’s not multiple hundreds of millions to make the game
Click to expand...
How exactly do you know that? The game was in development for 8 years and use mocap for cinematics (something unusual in games of that type). This game is expensive, maybe more expensive than Ghost of Tsushima or Days Gone.
 
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zokie

zokie

Member
me the talentless freak won't even install and play the game if it goes to ps+ in the future and did not want any to earn/collect any playstation stars content associated with them.

I still will buy games on ps platforms to support other developers
 
James Sawyer Ford

James Sawyer Ford

Member
kaizenkko said:
How exactly do you know that? The game was in development for 8 years and use mocap for cinematics (something unusual in games of that type). This game is expensive, maybe more expensive than Ghost of Tsushima or Days Gone 2.
Click to expand...

It’s an incubation startup. These folks aren’t getting paid a lot in salary, lots of contractors involved, and 8 years is meaningless, it was a very small team for more than half that time
 
foamdino

foamdino

Member
As I said in another thread. The gunplay and tech seems competent and the performance is fine.

I'd never play it (even free) as I'm just not into this sort of game. Other people who are into hero-shooter games have an array of choices (which are free) to choose from.

If they had made a single player game with the same gunplay, linear levels, the mo-capped vignette's, changing characters for each level (so you get to experience different styles from tanking to zippy dashing about), this would have been received *far better*.

The instant they said "5v5 hero shooter" - everyone tuned out. Nobody was interested, despite how well the tech was handled.

The things they could fix/patch together:
* better maps
* better characters
* Bring it to PS+ to (potentially) get more players

The things they cannot fix:
* The complete lack of interest in this type of game from the audience
* Removing the option to just play one of the other competing hero shooters...

To think that this would have cost many millions of dollars. The issue then becomes "we need to sell x million copies to break even". Longer / more expensive dev cycles will be the death of western devs.

The only thing I can think of *why* Sony actually bought the studio was because they could see that the people were capable of creating a very polished & competent FPS and Sony wanted to lock that talent down regardless of this first game. But yeah as a game this is not successful and no amount of coping will make it so.

Will we even get sales numbers for this?
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
Sonik said:
Hyenas cost 100 million to make and it wasn't even close to being released, this trash took 8 years to make and they finished it, it definitely cost at the very least tens of millions of dollars. So yeah, it's an AAA game and the idiots at Sony wasted millions upon million on an obviously doomed project
Click to expand...
I don't think people realize that AAA studios can be anywhere between 100-500 people. Think about the cost for each employee (plus insurance). Then you have to think about paid meals around crunch or crucial milestones. God knows what else. It's VERY easy to spend a ton of money. Hearing about the overall costs of projects from studios I worked at previously was astounding. Especially for online games.

The cost of a studio being 200-300 million to acquire shouldn't be baffling either. Especially when Insomniac cost 229 million at the time, and Bungie was 3.6 billion.
 
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ChorizoPicozo

ChorizoPicozo

Member
anti woke crew is having the time of their life (wukong drama + the acolyte cancelation + dustborn and Concord's faliures)
gEztRIi.jpeg

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔.

i hope this flop is humiliating enough for Sony to staph pandering to an audience that dosen't exists.

these kind of creatives come across as "aliens" trying to understand and failing to portrait human emotions in a natural and logical way.

and it dosen't help the videogame aspect is mid AF.
 
James Sawyer Ford

James Sawyer Ford

Member
foamdino said:
As I said in another thread. The gunplay and tech seems competent and the performance is fine.

I'd never play it (even free) as I'm just not into this sort of game. Other people who are into hero-shooter games have an array of choices (which are free) to choose from.

If they had made a single player game with the same gunplay, linear levels, the mo-capped vignette's, changing characters for each level (so you get to experience different styles from tanking to zippy dashing about), this would have been received *far better*.

The instant they said "5v5 hero shooter" - everyone tuned out. Nobody was interested, despite how well the tech was handled.

The things they could fix/patch together:
* better maps
* better characters
* Bring it to PS+ to (potentially) get more players

The things they cannot fix:
* The complete lack of interest in this type of game from the audience
* Removing the option to just play one of the other competing hero shooters...

To think that this would have cost many millions of dollars. The issue then becomes "we need to sell x million copies to break even". Longer / more expensive dev cycles will be the death of western devs.

The only thing I can think of *why* Sony actually bought the studio was because they could see that the people were capable of creating a very polished & competent FPS and Sony wanted to lock that talent down regardless of this first game. But yeah as a game this is not successful and no amount of coping will make it so.

Will we even get sales numbers for this?
Click to expand...

Good post and I agree with this
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sushi_Combo said:
These devs never learn to keep their mouth shut.
Click to expand...
Given how unprofessional so many game makers are on social media.... leaking games, uploading company memos for everyone to see, grilling people, bosses, trolling competing companies etc.... (you name it, they've done it)..... I dont think the avg game maker even cares.

They treat game making like a time filler for sake of making money. And if they get fired for a bad attitude, they dont really care.

Just about everyone else in every other industry acts more mature, doesnt say dumb shit on social media or leak confidential info, and wants to do their best to keep a job.

It's like half the game makers egg on the company and customer base hoping to get fired. A weird mentality.
 
dottme

dottme

Member
StreetsofBeige said:
Leave it to video game employees acting weird on social media.

If Nestle launches a shitty chocolate bar and it gets grilled and discontinued, I'm pretty sure none of the 270,000 employees will call out any consumers who hated it. You wont see one R&D guy, marketing/product manager or anyone close to the product going ape shit on social media.
Click to expand...
To be honest, I’m not even allowed to talk on social media what I’m working on. That the job of the PR department. In a company like Sony, I would expect something like this but it looks like it’s not the case.
I never understood how video game industry allow this. It can be really damaging.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
foamdino said:
The only thing I can think of *why* Sony actually bought the studio was because they could see that the people were capable of creating a very polished & competent FPS and Sony wanted to lock that talent down regardless of this first game. But yeah as a game this is not successful and no amount of coping will make it so.
Click to expand...
Anything is possible.

But for a company to buy another company for the people for TBD product #2, while eating the cost of acquisition and dev costs for current bomb product #1 is one heck of a roll of the dice.

Maybe gaming and tech is different. But in my industry, companies and brands shift around all the time. I have never seen one brand/company we bought where we didnt care about their current main product first, while having a focus on unknown stuff R&D talent can make in 5 years. The purpose of buying it is the main product they are making now.
 
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foamdino

foamdino

Member
StreetsofBeige said:
Anything is possible.

But for a company to buy another company for the people for TBD product #2, while eating the cost of acquisition and dev costs for current bomb product #1 is one heck of a roll of the dice.

Maybe gaming and tech is different. But in my industry, companies and brands shift around all the time. I have never seen one brand/company we bought where we didnt care about the current main product first, while having a focus on unknown stuff R&D talent can make in 5 years. The purpose of buying it is the main product they are making now.
Click to expand...
In general it's called an acqui-hire - MS and Google do it all the time. They can see that the dev folks are talented, they don't actually care about the product that much (indeed for MS & Google they actively want to kill said product). The point is that there is risk in trying to hire talent at a particular level, if you can see that these people can craft something at a particular quality bar, you can snatch up the whole team and you don't have the usual problems with getting staff to fit etc - ie the messy team formation part has already been done.

Now is that worth it? It certainly was with 0% interest rates (ie, borrow free money) - I doubt it's worth doing now.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
clarky said:
And also the last.
Click to expand...
FW will likely be shut down. Sony will pick and choose some people to go to various other SIE studios like they did to Bungie. But I'd be very surprised if Sony's head honcho (who seems much more cost conscience than others) gave FW another budget to make a second game.
 
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