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[chokotoureiki]

This is like the Budlight situation, where Budlight's main customers were straight males. What did they do? Insult that customer base verbally and then proceed to cater to .5% of the population, they still haven't recovered.

Sony, you're on your way to being the next Budlight.

Except that there's no one boycotting Sony nor are there any viral videos of ppl tossing the game in the trash or burning it. Sony is going to be perfectly fine.

 

[Soulja]

Too many GaaS titles already on the market and the vast majority of gamers do not want woke games. It really isn't difficult. Stop bowing down to the people whom most of, will not be buying your game anyway. If woke gamers actually wanted to play these games then they would sell by the bucket load, but they just want to scream and shout about their rights and lack of representation in games but then they do not want to support the games upon release and purchase them.

 

[Games of Today]

All I can say is that you could 10,000% tell that they began working on this after studying OG Overwatch's success.

Not only did it look nearly identical in it's character animations but the maps felt similar and they even did the animated story cutscenes to try and add personality to each hero.

And if Overwatch 2 is anything to go by, this type of game is FAR from what people want anymore.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

They said that they were a siloed organization. Yeah, i think thats part of the problem. Communication is imporrtant.

Translation: it’s probably not a great idea to give an team unlimited freedom and unlimited budget and just trust them to regulate themselves, especially when they have someone who insists on being called “The Professor”

 

[StreetsofBeige]

There is only one major reason, and it's called "Gaas in a saturated market"

GAAS is huge money. Problem is it can be hard to share.

Having some fun googling data, there's an estimate doing a Google search that Fortnite made $6B in revenue in 2022.

Even if Concord's estimated 25,000 copies sold held firm (not refunded), that's only $1M sales (25,000 x $40)

Doing some math, Fortnite made about $11,400 sales per minute. Fortnite made more money than Concord in 90 minutes.

 

[yurinka]

It’s nice to see them reiterate this. Although it makes it sound like there aren’t any plans to make/take risks on new big singleplayer IP’s.

Even if they repeated it again today, they said many times before that around half of their games under development are new IPs.

And GaaS are a minority of their games under development, meaning they are working on many single player new IPs. Like apparently new ones from ND, SSM, Housemarque and (this one apparently features MP elements) Bend.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

All I can say is that you could 10,000% tell that they began working on this after studying OG Overwatch's success.

Not only did it look nearly identical in it's character animations but the maps felt similar and they even did the animated story cutscenes to try and add personality to each hero.

And if Overwatch 2 is anything to go by, this type of game is FAR from what people want anymore.

And that's what happens when you chase trends, take forever to release the game (trend over), and dont adjust. Call some quick cash ins on Steam shady, but at least those indie devs copying a trend can seemingly churn out a game for $5 or $10 fast. Concord's first napkin math development started in 2016 which is crazy, and supposedly hardcore development was only 3-4 years ago (Herman Hulst tweet in 2021 said "he liked what he saw"). So if big development started during covid, they were too late.

 

[Bernardougf]

Gaas failure and DEI bullshit, but especially the DEI contamination of your studios. As soon as you acknowledge this problem you can start to heal.

 

[Fbh]

It's pretty obvious why it failed.
What Sony should look into is how apparently multiple people in influential positions of power within the company not only failed to see this game was going to struggle to be successful, but actually were really confident it was going to be a hit

 

[chokotoureiki]

Too many GaaS titles already on the market and the vast majority of gamers do not want woke games. It really isn't difficult. Stop bowing down to the people whom most of, will not be buying your game anyway. If woke gamers actually wanted to play these games then they would sell by the bucket load, but they just want to scream and shout about their rights and lack of representation in games but then they do not want to support the games upon release and purchase them.

No the problem isn't oversaturation. The same argument could be made about the restaurant industry - there's hundreds of thousands of restaurants, lots of new ones still opening as we speak in a highly competitive market. Lots of GaaS titles is a great thing, that means that there's a huge market opportunity out there. People want this stuff. Sony is willing to bank heavily on it. All they need is ONE hit, and bam! They hit the jackpot.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

“Currently, we are still in the process of learning,” he said via an interpreter. “And basically, with regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it.

The guy probably speaks perfect English without an accent, but we are still pulling this stunt? Ok I guess. Also - wrong.

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did.

He is right on that one.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

All I can say is that you could 10,000% tell that they began working on this after studying OG Overwatch's success.

Not only did it look nearly identical in it's character animations but the maps felt similar and they even did the animated story cutscenes to try and add personality to each hero.

And if Overwatch 2 is anything to go by, this type of game is FAR from what people want anymore.

It probably made sense way back in 2017. Overwatch clone with quippy Guardians of the Galaxy style characters + tone, made for the Modern Audience and ready for PS5 launch window. Great idea!

I have no idea why in the hell Sony would buy this studio and throw money at them in 2023 though.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Gaas failure and DEI bullshit, but especially the DEI contamination of your studios. As soon as you acknowledge this problem you can start to heal.

Thats the core issue.

It's like when a sports team goes on a bad rut and 99% of the time the players and coaches answer questions in the post game interviews give vague buddy buddy answers, or they say the other team got lucky with bounces or the refs burned them with penalties.

How truthful are these PR statements.

They can be BS answers, where everyone gets grilled in the locker room 20 minutes later. Or the team truly thinks there's nothing really wrong, but they just got bad luck lately. Just keep doing what they are doing an eventually they'll win.

 

[Pop]

If they are smart, they just make a killzone mp only game thats free on ps. How hard is that?

Killzone is too manly now for current PS. Filled with "problematic" ideas

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did."

This shows they get it. It sounds like Marathon won't have this problem with the amount of testing they're apparently doing.

 

[EviLore]

“Currently, we are still in the process of learning,” he said via an interpreter. “And basically, with regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it.

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did.

“Also, we have a siloed organisation, so going beyond the boundaries of those organisations in terms of development, and also sales, I think that could have been much smoother.

“And then going forward, in our own titles and in third-party titles, we do have many different windows. And we want to be able to select the right and optimal window so that we can deploy them on our own platform without cannibalisation, so that we can maximize our performance in terms of title launches. That’s all I have.”

Can't tell that his statement has anything to do with Concord just by reading it.

 

[dottme]

Can't tell that his statement has anything to do with Concord just by reading it.

Nothing specific to Concord. But I agree in one thing, how didn’t they realize this is going to be disaster earlier.
With the money involved now, there’s normally a lot of process to ensure you’re not completely wasting the money.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Baboso Hermen Hulst

 

[Soulja]

No the problem isn't oversaturation. The same argument could be made about the restaurant industry - there's hundreds of thousands of restaurants, lots of new ones still opening as we speak in a highly competitive market. Lots of GaaS titles is a great thing, that means that there's a huge market opportunity out there. People want this stuff. Sony is willing to bank heavily on it. All they need is ONE hit, and bam! They hit the jackpot.

We don't need another overwatch rip off. They need something more original, something with a little flavour rather than bland and boring. GaaS are very time consuming and people cannot commit time to multiple GaaS titles. You need to release something special to pull people away from a GaaS title that they're already committed to. People don't have to commit to a restaurant, they'll just go and eat what they like and not feel pressured to go back every single day.
Restaurants normally try to provide you with nice food and good service... GaaS try to force feed you a shit game and hope you get addicted to it and become a whale who will dump money into it at an alarming rate.

 

[Robb]

Even if they repeated it againtoday, they said many times before that around half of their games under development are new IPs.

And GaaS are a minority of their games under development, meaning they are working on many single player new IPs. Like apparently new ones from ND, SSM, Housemarque and (this one apparently features MP elements) Bend.

That sounds great!

 

[Holammer]

 

[RoboFu]

They asked consultants and consultants looked up internet game sites and journalist and saw people like Jason Schreier and reset era "insiders" .

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Good. That to me sounds like more internal and external testing. No more winging it with a blank cheque.

Anecdotal point from me, but doesnt sound surprising to me. it's like my buddy I went to university with. I did business, he did engineering. He's worked at car companies for a lot of his career at parts makers who make for USA and Japanese companies. He'd always say the Japanese makers would require more testing even if it took longer. While the American companies would ask for stuff faster where any engineering fixes were more like quick patch jobs.

 

[noob smokes]

It failed cuz we wont socom & killzone old man

 

[Hookshot]

Extra testing won't mean shit when they ban "bigots" and just get their own bubble to heap praise.

 

[chokotoureiki]

We don't need another overwatch rip off. They need something more original, something with a little flavour rather than bland and boring. GaaS are very time consuming and people cannot commit time to multiple GaaS titles. You need to release something special to pull people away from a GaaS title that they're already committed to. People don't have to commit to a restaurant, they'll just go and eat what they like and not feel pressured to go back every single day.
Restaurants normally try to provide you with nice food and good service... GaaS try to force feed you a shit game and hope you get addicted to it and become a whale who will dump money into it at an alarming rate.

It's not that ppl can't commit time to multiple GaaS titles, there just needs to be one GaaS title that's alluring enough to pull their attention away from those other games. That's why Sony brought in Bungie. They know about GaaS from their previous successes with Destiny and Halo. Given their impressive track record, they're sure to strike lightning in a bottle once again. As Robert Kiyosaki once said, "nine out of ten businesses fail; so I came up with a foolproof plan - create ten businesses." Sony is already making 12 GaaS titles, so there's no way to botch this.

 

[hemo memo]

They basically learned nothing.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I love Japan, its people and its culture, but I am surprised by Totoki's statements

.I won't tell anything because I respect the Japanese people.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

One thing is certain. If a person doesn't know why a GAAS title succeeds, they're equally as oblivious as to why a GAAS title fails.

Lots of meaningless yapping from the ignorant.

 

[Heaven Angel]

Do what you do best Sony, focus on Single Player titles from now on.

 

[Fake]

Definitely. Unproven studio, new IP, supposedly super high budget, toxic work environment. Why did Sony think any of this was a good idea? The studio should've been tasked with remastering/remaking an older (MP) title to prove themselves before giving them unlimited funds to make "the professor's" dream project.

I still think there are some decisions political moved. Maybe they are forced by devs to make whatever they want.

I mean, we are in 2024. We have projections, we have closed beta, alpha, all this stuff and none of that said a clear message to them.

If someone ask what is toxic positivity I can't think any better case than this game. SEGA this a smart move cancelling Hyenna game even before launch because they know would be better to not even release.

Why SEGA did and Sony didn't? Devs are playing a part of the decisions Sony have to make. Lets see if after all those things that are happen we can expect changes.

 

[Bernardougf]

Thats the core issue.

It's like when a sports team goes on a bad rut and 99% of the time the players and coaches answer questions in the post game interviews give vague buddy buddy answers, or they say the other team got lucky with bounces or the refs burned them with penalties.

How truthful are these PR statements.

They can be BS answers, where everyone gets grilled in the locker room 20 minutes later. Or the team truly thinks there's nothing really wrong, but they just got bad luck lately. Just keep doing what they are doing an eventually they'll win.

Pretty much sums up the dallas cowboys situation...

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Make a cookie cutter game in a crowded genre that targets less than 1% of gamers. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

Couldn't they outsource the ip to an other team within sony? Who is familiar with shooters

I wish. Sony hasn't made a non-GAAS FPS since Killzone Shadowfall, IIRC. I like cinematic third-person action games, but could we get a little love for some of the other genres?

 

[Bernardougf]

I wish. Sony hasn't made a non-GAAS FPS since Killzone Shadowfall, IIRC. I like cinematic third-person action games, but could we get a little love for some of the other genres?

Well at least if those were still good... but the quality of story telling has gone off a cliff in this gens sequels.

 

[SkylineRKR]

This isn't just a failure like Xdefiant, Suicide Squad or Multiversus, its a colossal failure that sold only approx 20k and was thus pulled after 2 weeks.

This has nothing to do with release schedule or anything. No one wanted to even try the Beta. Gamers flat out didn't want this game to exist. Unlike the bulk of other GaaS failures out there. This has to do with DEI, the developers itself, woke. Nothing more.

 

[newtypepilot]

Sony bought the studio before the game came out.

Concord is a dud no doubt but Sony is the bigger failure.

 

[Holammer]

Good. That to me sounds like more internal and external testing. No more winging it with a blank cheque.

Anecdotal point from me, but doesnt sound surprising to me. it's like my buddy I went to university with. I did business, he did engineering. He's worked at car companies for a lot of his career at parts makers who make for USA and Japanese companies. He'd always say the Japanese makers would require more testing even if it took longer. While the American companies would ask for stuff faster where any engineering fixes were more like quick patch jobs.

I think we're going to see similarities to Inside Out 2's production. It saw some social media whine for heavy handed oversight on Disney's part.
They went in and made sure there was no gay coding, queer themes, colours or iconography in the Pixar movie. This because of the Lightyear flop where the patients ran the asylum.

Disney’s ‘Inside Out 2’ Controversy, Explained

Former employees have spoken out against Disney, alleging a toxic work environment during ‘Inside Out 2,’ and claiming there were notes to make Riley seem “less gay.”

www.forbes.com

 

[cormack12]

The DEIsigns were shit and added to the issues, but they weren't the only issues. First teaser grabbed everyone's interest.

As soon as the genre, cost model and gameplay was shown pretty much everyone knew it was going to flop. There will always be flops and risks but this was literally flying in the face of everything. Even if it was a great game it would struggle to find a consistent audience against other titles. Fairgame$ looks to be the same- the problem is in the middle with whoever is making the risk/cost analysis

 

[chokotoureiki]

Sony bought the studio before the game came out.

Concord is a dud no doubt but Sony is the bigger failure.

Oh yeah sure making $2.2 bil in a single quarter counts as a failure alright.

 

[yogaflame]

Lesson learned for Sony. GAAS and live service is not there forte and that is not there strength. Now go back to there roots and there strength, and that is single player exclusives. Good to hear that is the Sony's plan starting now. and I hope they sytop being influence by SBI or same agenda consulting group. Twisted DEI and twisted woke agenda especially when it comes gender ideology has been a plague to the industry and society today.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Sony bought the studio before the game came out.

Concord is a dud no doubt but Sony is the bigger failure.

Sony saw this game and was like “PLEASE make this exclusive, here’s $200 million, we’ll even build you a fancy new office… this could be the future of PlayStation!”

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

No one liked the characters.

Without likable characters, the game will fail.

Concord failed.

It's really that simple. You don't need to "investigate" anything here. All the evidence is already there, just acknowledge it ffs.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

super late to the party (genre), spent way too much, didnt tell devs to STFU on social media, and designed characters for an annoying vocal minority

kudos for trying something new, also kudos for the gold tier retardation

demote or let go anyone who consistently assured you this was a good project

 

[Loomy]

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did."

This was the biggest problem with Concord. I do a lot of user testing for work. The kind of feedback you get from showing someone something that looks mostly complete for the first time vs something that is clearly still in early development is vastly different. One is a lot more useful. And that glorified demo we got for Concord was useless.

Had Firewalk actually gotten out of their own bubble and tested the game publically earlier in the process, they would probably still be working on the game right now. And they would have still been able to include a lot of the stuff that they wanted that some people hated.

Can't tell that his statement has anything to do with Concord just by reading it.

It's a response to a question about Concord, but I hope it's something they apply to all their MP games - in terms of those gates and check-ins he mentioned, but also doing a better job with release windows - especially their SP games. This is a company that released 2 horizon games against Zelda, and Elden Ring, for some reason.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Am I reading this correct?

Are they basically saying, "We didn't check in early or often."

What the fuck has been going on with AAA gaming in the past 8 years?

 

[Saber]

With that attitude I honestly hope they double down on their own stupidity. Losing that amount of money didn't look like it was a big deal since they didn't have the profissionalism to check on their project and give their honest thoughs, which I quite frankly I don't believe that much. I'm willing to guess they check them(sort of), but it was an effect of toxicity positivity blocking them to give the proper feedback and checking frequently (I'm almost sure they saw things like pronoums and though it was ok). Go play burning your money some more.

 

[Loomy]

Am I reading this correct?

Are they basically saying, "We didn't check in early or often."

What the fuck has been going on with AAA gaming in the past 8 years?

Basically this. Which is a good realisation to have. Although, to your point, it shouldn't be a realization a company that has been doing this for over 30 years now should be having today.

Fun fact - I'm now realizing this is almost exactly what Phil Spencer said about Red Fall and Arcane after the acquisition. So maybe the problem is both MS and Sony suck at integrating new teams?

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

No one liked the characters.

Without likable characters, the game will fail.

Concord failed.

It's really that simple. You don't need to "investigate" anything here. All the evidence is already there, just acknowledge it ffs.

For real, and even a lot of the woke lunatics who usually like shitty looking characters don't even like the ones from Concord.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

If I'm reading this right~

“So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did."

Is that saying, in a roundabout way..

'Holy shit these fuckers were crazy, we should have been checking on them before putting this utter bum flinching turd out'?

Because if it's not. Don't bother.