Sony Shuts Down Video Game That Pushed Pronouns and ‘DEI’ After Mere Weeks
The recent announcement regarding the multiplayer arena shooter game “Concord” has sent shockwaves through the gaming community. Sony revealed that the game, developed by Firewalk Studios, will be taken offline just two weeks after its launch on August 23, 2024, citing a variety of factors for its underwhelming performance, including sales estimates of only 25,000 units sold and a peak of 697 concurrent players.
At a staggering budget of approximately $200 million, “Concord” aimed to compete with heavy-hitters in the genre like “Overwatch 2” and “Valorant.” However, its selling price of $40 raised eyebrows as the genre typically leans towards free-to-play models supported by microtransactions. The game’s intent to provide a more substantial upfront experience while avoiding in-game purchases may not have sufficiently appealed to players, leaving it struggling to gain traction.
While many factors contributed to the game’s failure, discussions have emerged regarding its perceived focus on “wokeness.” Critics have pointed to character designs and narratives that seem heavily influenced by diversity and inclusion initiatives. The backlash was particularly pronounced following character reveals that included extensive identification of pronouns and DEI-centric designs, which some gamers found off-putting.
Despite a mixed reception from critics with a Metacritic score of 62, player sentiment was significantly lower, illustrated by a user score of just 1.8. This disparity often signals a disconnect between media approval and public reception, commonly linked to the game’s thematic approach or perceived agendas.
In the case of “Concord,” the combination of a high price tag, a crowded marketplace, and themes that some players deemed overly progressive may explain its rapid decline. The gaming industry has seen similar recoveries, as with titles like “No Man’s Sky,” which initially struggled but eventually found success after significant updates. However, the future of “Concord” remains uncertain as Sony now engages in deliberation on how best to proceed, including offering refunds to players.
Ultimately, the situation invites broader discussions about the intersections of game design, marketing strategies, and the cultural narratives embedded within contemporary gaming.
Well, that didn’t last long.
“Concord,” if you’re not a gamer, was supposed to be one of the big releases heading into the fall. The Sony PlayStation 5 and PC title, developed by Firewalk Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was eight years in the works. It was a so-called “hero shooter” — a genre of multiplayer arena shooter games in which each of the characters have distinctive designs and gameplay characteristics.
Rumors had its budget reaching as high as $200 million. It was supposed to be competing with blockbuster titles in the genre like “Overwatch 2” and “Valorant.” Instead, less than two weeks after its Aug. 23 launch, Sony is pulling the plug — and some are blaming the game’s overweening, unapologetic wokeness for its failure.
In a Tuesday post on Sony’s website, Firewalk Studios game director Ryan Ellis said that “while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended.
“Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take [‘Concord’] offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.
“While we determine the best path ahead, ‘Concord’ sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.”
Now, let’s start out with the fact that “Concord” didn’t necessarily fail only because of its blatant wokeness — and that’s what the gaming media is leaning on when reporting this epic disaster.
For starters, “Concord” cost $40 a copy in a genre that’s typically free-to-play — meaning that the developer makes the game itself free while generating income from in-game purchases, like “Overwatch 2” and “Valorant.” “Concord” was supposed to offer a more robust experience that justified the initial cost — as well as removed as many pesky microtransactions, the bane of every gamer’s existence — as possible by having people pay up front.
Apparently, that didn’t work; IGN noted the game sold a measly 25,000 units after launch and that the highest number of players logged on simultaneously that could be counted was 697. Considering that the game is meant to be played online, that’s an issue.
I don’t think Concord isn’t selling because of the $40 price point or weak marketing. It’s pretty simple: it’s not a good game, so nobody is buying it. Sea of Thieves is also $40 on PlayStation, but has reportedly sold over 1 million copies because it’s matured into a great game pic.twitter.com/PQlAOXWz6Q
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) August 31, 2024
Furthermore, reviews were good, but the mixed sort of good. It received a 62 on review aggregator Metacritic — which isn’t spectacular, but also usually isn’t the kind of critical consensus a game receives when it almost immediately gets pulled from distribution. It wasn’t an unplayable glitchfest or a title that went horribly wrong somewhere in the development pipeline and couldn’t be salvaged no matter how long it was delayed. The most common gripe was that, while the game was good, there simply wasn’t enough to differentiate it from titles like it.
Well — there was one thing to differentiate it. And, yes, that’s the wokeness.
It was known for months up to the release of “Concord” that the game was going to feel like an insufferable DEI seminar with guns. Take this post, from May, after some of the character reveals:
PlayStation’s new hero 5V5 PVP Shooter Concord is full of diverse character designs & they even have their pronouns listed below their name ( see top right )
Who is this game for exactly? https://t.co/XEMQFNMxQ5
— Endymion (@EndymionYT) May 31, 2024
According to geek-centric website That Park Place, one character had their pronouns as “undecided.” It was blatantly obvious, as the writer noted, that “the characters have clearly been created to adhere to woke, DEI character designs.”
These were some of the characters in a newly released video game called “Concord” by Sony which cost up to $US200 million to develop. Purchasers were so disgusted, Sony had to pull the game and offer full refunds. Go woke, go broke. pic.twitter.com/mB0NRwnDyh
— War Against Woke 🇦🇺 (@jgrogan222) September 4, 2024
This is honestly so funny. Sony went all in on a woke video game called Concord that has obese nonbinary characters and pronouns because they thought to pander to the woke crowd and they’ve lost $200 million over it.
Fewer than a thousand people even played it at the same time… pic.twitter.com/5yuUseMLyo
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 28, 2024
Firewalk Studios’ Kim Kreines, the company’s director of IP, doubled down on the wokeness after it drew fire, saying that “[e]very character brings their own unique personality, skills, and wide-ranging perspectives to the crew.
“Every week when you log in to ‘Concord,’ you will be welcomed with a new cinematic vignette that will give you a chance to see our characters off the job. They will feature ongoing narrative arcs that grow the characters’ stories and relationships and unpack the broader ‘Concord’ galaxy.”
Well, not anymore, they won’t.
Furthermore, if the issue was the price, an immediate price cut and refunds for those who had bought it would be a more sensible path forward, moving the game toward a free-to-play model while still keeping it in the public eye and trying to foster some kind of user base.
If the issue was that it was underwhelming or undifferentiated from other offerings, this isn’t without precedent in the game industry. One might remember the infamous example of “No Man’s Sky,” originally a PlayStation 4 and PC title that suffered a similar backlash upon release because gameplay wasn’t what users had been led to expect it was from pre-launch footage and hype.
The title was initially branded as a flop — but, slow and steady progress in improving the game model has turned it into a surprise cult success. It’s averaged 15,411 players online at any given time over the past 30 days, according to SteamCharts.org. That’s 14,714 more than a brand-new PS5/PC release had at its peak.
So, yes, I’d say wokeness may have played a part in this, particularly given that the user score on Metacritic — 1.8 out of 10 — is far lower than the critical score of 62 out of 100. Usually, when you see this kind of disparity, it’s because a game, movie or show is trying to push some agenda that people have reacted poorly to.
Perhaps “Concord” manages to be come the woke “No Man’s Sky” and redeems itself, somehow, after a bit of rejiggering. Or perhaps it’ll end up being a $200 million DEI sinkhole. You make the call, but my money’s on the latter. What’s that old saying? Go woke, go … something?
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