Support NeoGAF

[Killjoy-NL]

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.

It is very much designed for cooperative.

Maybe that's why you think it sucks, because you don't play cooperatively.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

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

Except I agree with pretty much all the criticism about the game.

I dont even like the majority of Playstation releases anyway.

 

[Duchess]

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.

And Dustborn spawned a media franchise on the scale of the MCU

 

[violence]

Battleborn wasn’t late to the party. It came out 8 years ago and also failed pretty quick. I think it’s because Overwatch is too strong as competition.

If you’re gonna do a hero shooter, I would at least be confident that you can offer something unique that overwatch isn’t doing.

 

[Buggy Loop]

I dont even like the majority of Playstation releases anyway.

Who are you trying to fool lol

 

[deriks]

Direction was poor and production was way too ambitious in a over saturated market

Also, the woke era is showing the first steps into the end. Was a perfect storm of bad

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Culture warriors avoided it…. And so did everybody else.

Man I’d love to take credit for it, if 100% of the failure were a case of “go woke, go broke”. But that’s just one of the game’s problems.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Who are you trying to fool lol

Apart from Killzone, TLOU, GOW, Horizon, MAG, Socom and Team ICO games, I never cared for any Sony game throughout it's entire history.

Edit:

And Resistance 1 + Demon's Souls.

 

[Madserb2023]

It didn't fail just because it was woke. It didn't help but imagine making a Fortnight clone that looked worse in everyway, making all the characters obese and charging $40 when your main competitor is free. It's just a really bad idea. I think many of its defenders will purely pass it off as a victim of the culture war, but sadly that's why it will be repeated.

 

[DryvBy]

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.

I think if it were F2P, they'd have more people trying it, but I think this is people are tired of the forced woke on top of the price. There's some indie shooters that have sold for $40+ and have legs to this day after years.

If overpopulated was a real excuse, RPGs wouldn't sell. Almost every game is an RPG in some nature.

 

[yurinka]

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.

Over 100K Steam followers before launch isn't DOA at all, and that can't be Overwatch haters only.

It's hyped by people who likes Marvel characters and its artstyle.

Crossprogression is a nice bonus (I think it should be implemented in all multiplatform games) doesn't decide the success of the game at all. Many games like Redfall had it and tanked. Many others had a great success without it (like SF6 and Helldivers 2, the 2 games I play where I miss it because are the only two I own in both PS5 and PC).

If they want they can link PSN and Steam accounts inside their game, they don't need to make a company account/launcher/etc. Companies normally don't do it because platform holders don't like to see their players with DLC/add-ons bought in other stores.

I don't know the exact Steam rules for this, but Sony has the biggest userbase for most AAA, so they are the ones more protective about it. If the % of the revenue of a 3rd party game outside PS is too high compared to the % of the active userbase in PS, Sony asks them to pay for compensation because they don't want to be the fools paying server costs while other store is the one making the money. So as a result, many decide to don't implement crossprogression/crossbuy.

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

Uh, you're right, I thought it was September 6th instead.

 

[Hookshot]

The price tag has killed it as much as the shit characters. Even if you convinced 4 friends to join and became the most hardcore Concord team ever, you'd have played everyone else within this week and now you'd be playing the same few people because no one new is buying into a dwindling player base.

 

[SJRB]

Making terrible characters that are universally disliked is not “bad luck”, lmao.

 

[BigBeauford]

Every character has pronouns (including a robot).

Everything is purple, teal, or some other variation of effeminate color.

There are no white characters in a game being marketed to a majority white male clientele. Might as well slap Mike Rowe on the cover of Cosmopolitan in hopes to attract blue collar readers.

Of COURSE the strongest character in the game is a woman of color.

There is an obese character. And no, he's not cool like roadhog, he looks like the guy who unlocks your game from a Walmart cabinet.

Every female is covered from head to toe; the male gaze is not welcome here!

 

[Shake Your Rump]

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.

Nah. It is that bad. I went in with fresh eyes and I am not part of any sort of woke/antiwoke sentiment.

The characters are just plain dumb looking. The skins are awful. They all just blend together in one big indistinct guardians of the galaxy lookalike.

The gameplay is literally destiny multiplayer from 2016, just without all the cool customization we had with the classes.

This is supposedly a team game, but there is little incentive to play as a team.

I wanted a fun game like this. I really enjoyed destiny multiplayer. I would love a full priced, no micro transaction, no battlepass multiplayer game to succeed like the original Overwatch. This ain’t it.

 

[Interfectum]

The released a game in an overcrowded market with a bunch of unappealing characters. There are zero hardcore gamers to help prop up or proselytize the game and the people they are trying to appeal to don't play or didn't show up. Whatever producer green-lit this game and let these developers run free with their political bullshit should be fired on the spot.

 

[DaGwaphics]

The game doesn't bring anything to the table and would have flopped regardless of any political angle. Culture wars are all about pyrrhic victories to begin with, so, whatever narrative that fits gets applied adnauseam, regardless of relevance.

The new fad in gaming seems to be obsessing over the performance of niche games that never had a chance of being blockbusters to begin with. I guess because these folks don't want those niche games to exist?

 

[Saber]

Oh yeah, the typical is the gamers/haters fault.
Bonus points for "the game did not failed because its woke, its something else", just the type of demented shit excuse that happens in movies.

 

[Doom85]

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

Not the same situation at all, and those are some interesting mental gymnastics you’re doing to reach such a conclusion.

-game with unappealing character designs, and in a genre over saturated with better alternative options
-a studio refusing to censor (LMAO at “necessary edits”, what a way to phrase it) their film due to another country’s homophobic government

I’m curious, if the Chinese government decided they now hate violence in movies, should all western films remove violence? Apparently you’d be up for it based on your above take.

 

[Reaseru]

I feel that a restrictive number of major PS fanboys can't cope that a Playstation Studios game flopped so hard that not even the most infamous Xbox first party games ever failed like this one had.

 

[rotorfire]

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

I'm not seeing that much hate, just a whole load of schadenfreude from a dam that's finally burst.

 

[MetalFreak]

If it has wokery then for me is a no buy.
Not buying woke shite is the only power I have.

 

[tommib]

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.

I agree with this but they’re also free to play, right?

 

[LordOfChaos]

It probably would have done better as a f2p in this environment, it's oversaturated and this isn't particularly special. As much as I hate to say that, because I'd rather just pay once for a game and not have it try to monetize me during the play experience. But another generic hero shooter? Eh, f2p material.

 

[The Cockatrice]

It is very much designed for cooperative.

Maybe that's why you think it sucks, because you don't play cooperatively.

Based on your replies on this thread, I can pretty much safely say you have no idea.

 

[yurinka]

I agree with this but they’re also free to play, right?

Yes, Candy Crash too. Dustborn isn't. Many of the top GaaS games are paid games or started as paid games.

The business model is not related at all to if a game tanks or is super successfull. There are ton of cases of big successes and games tanking in non-GaaS titles, paid GaaS titles or F2P GaaS titles.

 

[Little Chicken]

Don't buy into the "culture wars" crap, just rich people trying to distract you from their constant sociopathic thieving.

 

[Z O N E]

It's failing because Sony got greedy and thought consumers would pay money for a game in a genre that is already over saturated with free versions just because it has the name Sony on it.

It's also failing because the heroes look like they came out of a character randomizer.

 

[proandrad]

Mass market doesn’t pass on games because of the culture war, that’s a hardcore gamer thing for people in the know. They passed on concord because most of them don’t even know it exists, it looks like a generic hero shooter with no appeal. The culture war in gaming is really in a bubble.

 

[Kings Field]

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

oh boy I just read something about one of the characters

 

[EverydayBeast]

Concord I still think is fun.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Based on your replies on this thread, I can pretty much safely say you have no idea.

34hrs playtime beg to differ.

You don't think I take most comments seriously, right?

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

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

It's a GaaS PvP exclusive Hero Shooter releasing in an age where most gamers are fucking sick of GaaS and PvP-exclusive hero shooters.

Even if the gameplay was competent, the game would have bombed.

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.

Clearly not.

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

• And that it's GaaS
• And that it's a MP-only hero shooter (i.e. a tired formula)
• And the pronoun BS-----why inject real-world US-centric politics into a game based in its own Sci-Fi universe?
• And that the gameplay just looks boring as sin

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.

Lol, nah. The designs are fucking awful. They're generic as fuck. Uninspired. Made by folks who seem to have been locked away in a microcosm of a woke left-wing activist echo chamber for the past decade.

Everything is just so fucking bland visually, as if overriding driving force in the visual design was to make the characters as inoffensive as possible.

To make matters even worse, these characters can't even get away with being NPCS. This is a Hero fucking shooter, FFS. You know.... the type of game that lives or dies off the uniqueness of the visual design of the characters. Making a Hero Shooter and then populating it with the blandest fucking cast of generic sci-fi characters is the cardinal sin this developer made that has overwhelmingly led to the mainstream gamer's apathy towards the game. The culture war talking points are a distraction of the core gamer base. The mainstream care much less about culture wars, and instead isn't interested in Concord because it just looks so fucking unappealing.

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

See above.

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

Mass Effect is not a MP-only Hero Shooter GaaS game. It also has fucking excellent art direction (well, everything before Andromeda, anyway).
Apex Legends also has interesting art direction that's much more appealing than Concord's.

It seems this game isn't being judged on its merits, and rather became a target in the ongoing culture wars.

Not at all. You're just conveniently ignoring the glaring issues with the game in order to push a narrative.

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

If it's a sacrifice of anything. it's a glaring message to Sony that their current GaaS strategy needs a course correct. Because PvP MP-only GaaS games in over-saturated genres like Hero Shooters, Extraction Shooters, Battle Royale etc etc are doomed to fail, woke or not.

 

[Von Hugh]

Other hero shooters laid the groundwork by being free to play and having attractive visual design (or at least miles better than Concord).

And here comes Concord with its 40 dollar price tag and hideous visuals trying to fit in the saturated market. It just doesn't work.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Everything.

Also $40 too.

 

[Astray]

Culture Wars don't really make games fail, if they did then you'd see a lot more games fail.

Concord's issue is it came out in an unappealing style (not just character designs, but also how the game got marketed) in a very overcrowded market segment that has thoroughly co-opted F2P as the main way to go.

 

[RoboFu]

its all 3 not just one .

 

[Gaiff]

• And that it's GaaS
• And that it's a MP-only hero shooter (i.e. a tired formula)
• And the pronoun BS-----why inject real-world US-centric politics into a game based in its own Sci-Fi universe?
• And that the gameplay just looks boring as sin

And that's it's $40, which might be the biggest indictment on this game. Overwatch 2 and Valorant are F2P, so what was Sony's game plan there?

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Culture Wars don't really make games fail, if they did then you'd see a lot more games fail.

Concord's issue is it came out in an unappealing style (not just character designs, but also how the game got marketed) in a very overcrowded market segment that has thoroughly co-opted F2P as the main way to go.

True but the unappealing style was largely because they cared more about thwarting the male gaze and avoiding excessive masculinity/femininity than about making characters that gamers actually want to play as.

Does that count as culture wars?

 

[The Cockatrice]

34hrs playtime beg to differ.

You don't think I take most comments seriously, right?

I had like 5000+ hours in LoL, that didnt make me a pro, but sure guy.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

I had like 5000+ hours in LoL, that didnt make me a pro, but sure guy.

I didnt expect you to be a pro at anything.

But we weren't discussing our skill level in a game.

 

[Neolombax]

I don't think its so much an issue with GaaS or hero shooters, because games like First Descendant and Marvel Rivals are saying otherwise. The character designs are borderline horrendous though. That said, I still think its a fun game, I play it almost daily.

 

[The Cockatrice]

I didnt expect you to be a pro at anything.

But we weren't discussing our skill level in a game.

 

[BlueLyria]

Not really, take Apex as an example: it's diverse, so much so that Lifeline looks like a racist caricature with how exaggerated her features are.
Every single apex character has a unappealing model ingame, there's gay people, a transgender and somehow no one really talks about it, and you know why?

Because the models might be unappealing but they got a distinct silhouette and animations. The gameplay is fast and solid. Voice lines are tolerable.
So even with all the "woke" stuff, it's still a good game that fills a niche and wasn't super late to the party. (I'll not comment on ea's mismanagement and cheating issues though)

Concord's sin is that it's unappealing across the visuals, audio and gameplay. Besides being super late and releasing when the fatigue of colorful, sassy, ironic and safe is starting to spill over. The market is kinda shifting back to wanting grittier games.

 

[stn]

I don't play hero looter shooters, but the designs in this one are the worst I've ever seen. I think its telling that nobody is buying the game, not even the targeted group.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

You claimed it's gameplay isn't designed for cooperative play, but it is.

Then you go on to say that comments made by mostly people who didnt play the game somehow support your claim.

If you want to play the game effectively, you have to play together as a team, otherwise the opposing team steamrolls your team.

 

[Astray]

True but the unappealing style was largely because they cared more about thwarting the male gaze and avoiding excessive masculinity/femininity than about making characters that gamers actually want to play as.

Does that count as culture wars?

It's not only because of that.

They chose a realistic rendering style with like skin pores and shit, that clashed with the alien designs too much and gave it a Cats-esque presentation that is just terrible. If they went more cartoony then the bad designs would have been somewhat mitigated and even improved.

The pronouns was also a bad move, but not due to culture wars, from what I've seen of hero shooter audiences, they tend to love the speculation about the heroes more than the actual content, expanding on the characters from the off was just a bad idea, you want to have mystery on your side. The same goes for the cutscenes they want to release over time.

Culture wars do very little and only entrench existing viewpoints, "the bigots won't change, so why cater to them?" is now a dominant thought.

 

[The Cockatrice]

You claimed it's gameplay isn't designed for cooperative play, but it is.

It's not, even if thats what they wanted to. Of course teams can stick toghether, but no one was doing it in the hours I played the beta, nor was it ideal. The maps werent designed for teamplay either unlike OW maps. You're just talking out of your ass so Imma let you live in your delusions.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

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

This. There is NOTHING about Concord that should make anybody want to play it.

Boring gameplay, shit character design, and it's a $40 Hero shooter that is like 8 years too late in a room full of free to play titles.