Ah, Concord. The latest testament to the state of the ever-corporatized gaming industry. Its life was brief. Shorter than the lifespan of the average housefly. And a lot of other things, actually, so here are a few examples that outlasted Sony’s failed AAA shooter.
7. The average housefly
Every person under the Sun has, at some point, had a housefly buzzing around their head, sometimes for days on end. And those days can often tally up to 30, which would be twice as long as Concord‘s short-lived existence.
6. Liz Truss as prime minister
The shortest-serving British prime minister still went for quite some time longer than Sony’s sorrowful shooter. She stepped down from her position on the fiftieth day of her term, making her service to the Crown four times longer than Concord‘s time on the market. The only thing that is comparable between the two, though, is how much money each cost their respective backers.
5. Anthem
Just like Sony probably believed that Concord would be the next big thing, so did Bioware and EA when they developed and launched Anthem. The 2019 multiplayer action-RPG was met with criticism the moment it launched, and despite efforts by Bioware to reimagine the game throughout its brief lifespan, all development ceased in early 2021. That would give the title about two full years of uptime—or 50 times more than Concord (it’s still online but no longer developed).
4. Lawbreakers
Yet another title that tried and failed to tackle an already oversaturated market, Lawbreakers launched to quite good reviews in 2017. However, despite its appeal to critics and players, the game sold miserably, eventually leading to its untimely death and closure in 2018. The title nevertheless went far and beyond what Concord managed to achieve and should have been an example for developers to learn from to prevent the same from happening again.
3. A cellar spider
These little corner-hugging multi-legged creatures can live up to two years in ideal conditions, making their lifespan exponentially longer than that of Concord. Unlike Sony’s failed title, cellar spiders are quite useful and will catch all sorts of critters that make their way into your home.
Then again, I guess Concord has its uses, too. It’s a great source of memes, for example, and might serve the industry as a big red warning of what not to do when making a game.
2. The fruit in my fridge
A good chunk of fruits can last up to three weeks if kept at low temperatures in the fridge, which is about a week longer than Concord stayed on shelves. Hell, I’d even wager there are probably a good few fruits and vegetables that can stay shelved for longer than Concord did, which really puts its massive fumble into perspective.
1. Every title it tried to compete with
Concord‘s primary aim was the hero shooter genre, currently dominated by Overwatch 2 and Team Fortress 2. Both of these games are alive and well while Concord rots in some shallow grave behind Sony Interactive’s HQ, with the latter even having more players despite its decade-and-a-half-long existence. Imagine that: TF2 has been running for 17 years while Concord pulled a meager 14 days. Valve’s hero shooter was also a paid title on launch and still drew in tens of thousands of players even then.
So why did Concord fail and lose to titles old enough to go to school? It had nothing new. Both of its main competitors, which are likely to go on for years to come, brought new stuff to the table at the time they launched. Even Overwatch 2 is struggling these days because it didn’t innovate over its predecessor and failed to deliver on its promises. When all of that is taken into consideration, it becomes crystal clear that Concord never stood a chance.
