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[Shtof]

The more hate I see for this game, the more I think it can't possibly be that bad.

I've seen reviews that say the gameplay is pretty solid.
Obviously, not many people have played the game anyway, so that can't be the real problem.

The main problem people seem to have is the character designs.
I'm no fashion expert, but they made me think of something like "Most bizarre outfits from Paris Fashion Week".
Definitely made by somebody who knows their stuff, but made to stand out rather than to be likable.

But what makes the designs so incredibly unlikable to a vast majority of gamers?
I honestly can't tell.

They actually remind me a lot of Mass Effect and Apex Legends, which didn't receive any backlash of this magnitude.

It seems this game isn't being judged on its merits, and rather became a target in the ongoing culture wars.
A collective message from gamers to the gaming industry.

It is the perfect sacrifice - large enough to flop, but mid enough to skip.
Just super bad luck for the developers.

 

[M1chl]

Maybe on few boards, general public don't really care, at least what sales of the games suggests.

Its overcrowded genre, where you can already play games which you are playing for a long time, switching to another game, where you don't have the skill is tough time for a lot of people. Plus its 40 bucks and not F2P, which is common in this genre of competitive games.

 

[PeteBull]

It is the perfect sacrifice - large enough to flop, but mid enough to skip.
Just super bad luck for the developers.

Devs and sony knew all well what terrible woke trash this game is, and how much its gonna bomb, there is no "modern audience", its unicorn, fk those devs, they wasted 8years of dev time and easily over 100m usd for making this shit.
Sony Japan could make amazing game in that time/using that cash instead.

 

[tommib]

This game isn’t failing because it’s woke. It’s just unappealing in an overcrowded segment full of free games.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Game is 8 years too late to a party with devs that wanted to force agendas

Bad luck devs?

They are getting just what they deserve and some of them need to be out of the making games business

 

[Kokoloko85]

This game isn’t failing because it’s woke. It’s just unappealing in an overcrowded segment full of free games.

People didnt wanna touch it because its woke and bad character designs. I enjoy the gameplay

 

[Kokoloko85]

Anyone now pretending that it wasnt avoided because of woke and character designs has not been paying attention or mental gymnastics lol. Yall shitting on it because of character designs then pretend its something else without ever trying the game

 

[Reaseru]

The more hate I see for this game, the more I think it can't possibly be that bad.

I've seen reviews that say the gameplay is pretty solid.
Obviously, not many people have played the game anyway, so that can't be the real problem.

The main problem people seem to have is the character designs.
I'm no fashion expert, but they made me think of something like "Most bizarre outfits from Paris Fashion Week".
Definitely made by somebody who knows their stuff, but made to stand out rather than to be likable.

But what makes the designs so incredibly unlikable to a vast majority of gamers?
I honestly can't tell.

They actually remind me a lot of Mass Effect and Apex Legends, which didn't receive any backlash of this magnitude.

It seems this game isn't being judged on its merits, and rather became a target in the ongoing culture wars.
A collective message from gamers to the gaming industry.

It is the perfect sacrifice - large enough to flop, but mid enough to skip.
Just super bad luck for the developers.

Easy. Buy it. Then you can "experience" what a "great" game it is by yourself.

 

[PeteBull]

This game isn’t failing because it’s woke. It’s just unappealing in an overcrowded segment full of free games.

Woke devteam making woke game is making game unappealing to 99,999% of players, contrary to what woke journos or clown world believers from rainbow forum say- woke is super offputing, the more woke game is- the more offputing it is to ur avg consumer

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

"super bad luck"

HAHAHAHHAHAHAAHHA


Sure, man. Sure.

 

[genesisblock]

It's not a bad game based on the beta I've played. But it certainly isn't the 250 million budget title it supposed to be!

 

[winjer]

They made a game for a minority of people, of which most don't play games. Of course, it's going to fail.
Any product that doesn't target a consumer want or need, will always sell poorly.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Nah, just with Acolyte, the talentless developers were high on their own supply thinking that they were gaming gods and that the loud minority represented the market - and thus they thought they could alienate people.

But oh well, the laws of nature do not work that way.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

The more hate I see for this game, the more I think it can't possibly be that bad.

It isn't.

I've seen reviews that say the gameplay is pretty solid.

It is.

Obviously, not many people have played the game anyway, so that can't be the real problem.

One of the main issues.

The main problem people seem to have is the character designs.

Pretty much.

 

[StueyDuck]

If anything, it flopping means there isn't a culture war.

If equal numbers of people are against it, as there are for it, then you could say it's a culture war. A sacrifice means that there was merit or value in the first place.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

I liked playing it.

Thought the characters looked dumb. That cat lady with the uzi is by far the most annoying character I've ever seen in a video game even.
Kinda liked the color scheme in the environments. Liked the UI.

It's just very... simple. There's not even something like 'ranked matches' or something to progress on, I think. You just get XP and suddenly a character has a new purse or whatever.
I've said it before: it really feels like a tagged on multiplayer mode for a bigger single-player game. No way people are going to pay $40 for it.

 

[Pantz]

Go for it, you should play it!

 

[Gaiff]

They made a game for a minority of people, of which most don't play games. Of course, it's going to fail.
Any product that doesn't target a consumer want or need, will always sell poorly.

Yeah, bad games and horrible designs are not for the masses lol.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The argument of the OP is clearly in bad faith since it shifts the blame on people who don't want to buy the game instead of the devs who willingly make an appealing product.

Just reply the following question: WHY should people buy this game? There are more fun options (F2P ones, for that matter) and better designs out there. What's so special about this game that people should pay for it?

Devs and some people seem to ignore a few basics of the market of hero-shooters:

There is a FIRST barrier of entry: the characters. If they suck, the game is dead, regardless of its contents. That's how it is. You don't like it, don't enter this market. Period.

After that comes a second filter: "the game" itself, if it has great characters but the game loop is not exciting, it will become a fad, nothing more. But again, for people to give it a chance, the first condition (the characters) must be met.

Most people don't even care about cultural wars. They just see a fat dude, a granny, and a girl with a dust bin in her head and walk away, as any sane person would do.

 

[Rudius]

Game is 8 years too late to a party with devs that wanted to force agendas

Bad luck devs?

They are getting just what they deserve and some of them need to be out of the making games business

They could have made something like The Last Guardian instead: took a lot of time and money, failed to sell a lot (not this hard), but it's something people will play in 100 years.

They chose to make Concord, so they deserve the shit.

 

[Toots]

Everything is a war, everything is a sacrifice.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Pronouns and character designs aside, the game looks still quite average. Heard it's poorly balanced and not very fun to play.

So yeah, why would anyone pay money for this when Overwatch is free should have been their first consideration.

 

[Paasei]

They asked €40 for a game that has similar and better variants for free. I keep on believing that is the first big problem.

And then you don’t even see the overall design of the maps and characters. Nothing noteworthy or inspiring.

It’s not a sacrifice, it’s just not an interest game regardless. Does nothing truly new, apart from maybe that Rival mode. Also doesn’t do anything better than its free counterparts.

 

[Randall365]

In a parallel dimension, Stellar Blade flopped, Concord was GOTY and all those purple haired loonies screaming in a field took over Microsoft and Sony. But not here - thank Christ.

 

[CherryFalls]

Nice shill attempt op, lol. Nobody is buying it.

 

[Sethbacca]

People around here will tell you it was killed by the woke, but the reality is it was a bland looking game in an oversaturated genre. It may very well be fun but who wants to pay a premium to play yet another hero shooter clone at this point when there are plenty of f2p options?

 

[Wildebeest]

The only people vaguely mentioning this game and keeping it relevant are culture warriors and the odd GaaS permabull shouting things like "we can learn from Concord, it is good actually" into the void. Ultimately, games like Concord and Immortals of Aveum fail for the same reason. They don't have an audience. They don't seem to be doing anything to make them worth investing time and money in.

 

[BbMajor7th]

It's not hate that's killing it, it's indifference.

 

[AJUMP23]

Time has passed for this style of game. Ugly designs didn't help and it didn't have any hype or marketing that I could tell.

 

[Physiognomonics]

That's revisionist history. This game was a flop for most people after watching 5 mn of their own trailer. Without even knowing anything about the gameplay. If 90% of actual gamers can't like at least 2 of the main characters and the vibe of them all, what were the developers expecting?

Those developers live in their own bubble and know nothing about their customers.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Pronouns and character designs aside, the game looks still quite average. Heard it's poorly balanced and not very fun to play.

So yeah, why would anyone pay money for this when Overwatch is free should have been their first consideration.

Ehh, I think gameplay-wise, Concord > Overwatch.

It's just basic, bareboness and progression is meh.
Just a ranked playlist would already give some incentive to keep playing (for those that like playing the game).

Edit:

That apart from character design etc.

 

[Jack Videogames]

65 in opencritic, with a gaming press massively stacked in favor of this sort of content, is not bad luck

 

[The Cockatrice]

It is.

It's not. Mechanically gunplay and movement is okay however it's set up as a hero shooter with support heroes and tanky ones however the level design and its core is clearly made for destiny-like pvp, not cooperative at all. Everyone is just playing assassins because theres no reason to play anything else and its why the gameplay coudlnt carry the garbage character designs.

 

[Da1337Vinci]

No I don't think so.

The space concord fight for attention
for is too crowded with other games that are more mature and have a living community.

The horrendous character designs and culture war stuff even allowed it to garner attention it might not have orginally.

But like the old advertising adage says

"Nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising."

 

[Gaiff]

Ehh, I think gameplay-wise, Concord > Overwatch.

Of course, you do. You are known to be unbiased when it comes to PlayStation after all.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Culture wars could play a part but not entirely.

This is continuation of whatever started with Suicide Squad, and will likely take down a whole bunch of GAAS that are upcoming and not entirely brilliant.

 

[ViciousAgenda]

It's just not good enough. It does nothing new, nothing better than anything you can't already play for free and it costs money.

Why would anyone bother?

 

[Hugare]

They are charging $40 for a game that plays like a bunch of free alternatives out there.

It's not rocket science.

Sure, there's the "culture wars" angle too, but this is not the reason for 600 people playing it on launch day

Game might not be "bad", but being mediocre and charging for what should be a F2P game is just a recipe for disaster

 

[Jaybe]

Concord has more pronouns than players

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

It still bothers me how Sony had a TLOU Online project almost done and canceled it on its last year of development because it didn't have any long term monetization thing and because Naughty Dog couldn't support it long-term...and then looked at this and said "let's go".

I would bet a TLOU online project even without a long-term monetization and even with a small team of people to support it, even if its something like the Factions from the first game, it would end up recovering its costs. Like...the tv show is about to have its second season, they had an online game ready to go and said "nah...but wait, look at concord".

Like...i honestly don't get what these suits are thinking sometimes. Someone in there must hate money, lmao.

 

[Gojiira]

The more hate I see for this game, the more I think it can't possibly be that bad.

I've seen reviews that say the gameplay is pretty solid.
Obviously, not many people have played the game anyway, so that can't be the real problem.

The main problem people seem to have is the character designs.
I'm no fashion expert, but they made me think of something like "Most bizarre outfits from Paris Fashion Week".
Definitely made by somebody who knows their stuff, but made to stand out rather than to be likable.

But what makes the designs so incredibly unlikable to a vast majority of gamers?
I honestly can't tell.

They actually remind me a lot of Mass Effect and Apex Legends, which didn't receive any backlash of this magnitude.

It seems this game isn't being judged on its merits, and rather became a target in the ongoing culture wars.
A collective message from gamers to the gaming industry.

It is the perfect sacrifice - large enough to flop, but mid enough to skip.
Just super bad luck for the developers.

You seriously have to be a moron to not understand how grotesquely unappealing the character design and art direction is. Everything, EVERYTHING is designed to appeal to the SJW DEI Inclusivity and Alphabet gender brigade…Ie the people who clearly didnt buy the game.
Ask yourself why does a ROBOT need Pronouns? Seriously its the stupidest thing imaginable and just virtue signals for no reason because again the people its trying to appeal to didnt buy the game.

Now aesthetics etc are trash, but gameplay? Well theres no competitive aspect to it, you get the same progression whether you win or lose so its pointless to learn maps/characters/strategies which automatically reduces its appeal to hardcore FPS fans. The gameplay itself is fine but the noisy gross visual design of the characters dont lend themselves to competitive play either, they dont convey that characters role. A good example is Team Fortress, you can tell at a glance what strengths each class has and their role.

This game isnt a sacrifice like you make out, that would suggest the Woke are in the right. They are not. And as is clear by this game and many MANY other examples woke,gender ideology and ignoring gamings most dominant playerbase ie Normal People is a stupid….Stupid thing to do and leads to colossal failure…

 

[Gaiff]

Culture wars could play a part but not entirely.

This is continuation of whatever started with Suicide Squad, and will likely take down a whole bunch of GAAS that are upcoming and not entirely brilliant.

Culture wars play very little part in this disaster. People thinking it's what sunk this game are missing the forest for the trees. Most people don't give a fuck if the product is good, stands out, or is appealing. Concord is none of those.

Hell, I'd argue the problem with a lot of recent overly aggressive progressive games is that they're not good to begin with. First and foremost, you have to create something of high quality. The fact that so many are bad highlights another growing problem in the industry: the value of political opinions over talent. It's possible to be progressive and talented. Just like it's possible to be conservative and talented, and everything in between. You run into a major problem, however, if someone's political alignment is all that matters to give them the job or if you hire lesser-skilled people because of their political views over more skilled ones. All those overly progressive games are guilty of that. They eschew talent and vision and instead go for the political message. Your game is bound to be bad and fail if you do that regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum.

 

[yurinka]

This game isn’t failing because it’s woke. It’s just unappealing in an overcrowded segment full of free games.

First Descendant and Marvel Rivals are recent titles of the same subgenre.

Marvel Rivals releases this week but has 100K Steam followers. First Descendant had a 264K CCU launch peak and after it is at a somewhat steady 50K+ CCU daily peak.

Unlike Concord, both have appealing, charismatic characters for the hero shooter audiences.

 

[Holammer]

Yes, it was sacrificed on the altar to diversity and inclusion. Anyone with a lick of sense would have seen it coming from miles away and that is what makes Sony's acquisition of the studio so baffling. It is a high budget virtue signal and Sony footed the bill.

The same happened with Pixar's Lightyear movie. The studio caused a very public shitstorm drama to shame Disney when they wanted to make some necessary edits and the film was therefore banned in several countries, it never stood a a chance of reaching Chinese audiences. Again, the problems were present from the very beginning and every step of the production.

Same-Sex Kiss Restored in Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ Following Staff Uproar Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill (EXCLUSIVE)

Restoring a same-sex kiss in 'Lightyear' comes after years of thwarted efforts to include LGBTQ identity into Pixar's films, sources say.

variety.com

 

[Topher]

All the reasons stated apply. It is one of the most talked about games of the year because no one is playing it. Typically notoriety can be a strong promotional mechanism, but not in this case. It is a train wreck and nothing but. So yeah.....unappealing, price, crowded space, too woke, arrogant devs.....all that has gone into this perfect storm disaster of a game.

 

[Zathalus]

The gameplay is not really that bad. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but there are way worse feeling shooters out there. The problem is that the game is a disaster in visual design, most of the characters look awful and sport some of the worst outfits ever.

First impressions are important, and the generic cringe first trailer and shit tier visual design immediately put people off on the game.

 

[ManaByte]

If you're letting your blind devotion to culture wars stop you from enjoying any game, especially one that is a fun to play as Concord, you might have a problem.

First Descendant and Marvel Rivals are recent titles of the same subgenre.

Marvel Rivals releases this week but has 100K Steam followers. First Descendant had a 264K CCU launch peak and after it is at a somewhat steady 50K+ CCU daily peak.

Unlike Concord, both have appealing, charismatic characters for the hero shooter audiences.

Rivals is only being hyped up by people who hate Overwatch. The game doesn't do anything but clone Overwatch for the people who hate that game. It's also DOA because NetEase won't do an account system for the game, meaning it's completely tied to whatever platform you start it on. A GaaS has to have cross-progression and be platform agnostic in 2024 to succeed (Apex FINALLY got that done). Rivals locks people to one platform, and the devs can't commit to doing cross platform because NetEase can't do a cross-platform account system like EVERY other GaaS does.

And Marvels does NOT release this week. It's not out until December 6th.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Even if you ripped all the woke shit out, it’s a middling shooter that has better games in the same genre that are f2p. Even as a f2p game it would be a struggle to find people who give a shit.

 

[AV]

Seriously got absolutely nothing to do with culture war anti woke bullshit. It's just a completely unimaginative team shooter with a fee for entry in a world full of better f2p games. Sexy anime ladies who all look identical wouldn't save it.

 

[Chukhopops]

“Culture wars” isn’t enough to make a game fail as badly as Concord did. It was a factor for sure but far from the only one.

If you’re a “standard” customer who isn’t into culture war stuff, why would you buy Concord when it reviewed very poorly? When there is zero hype from the open beta? Why play a paid hero shooter when you can play F2P ones with more content and a larger player pool?