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As Sony shuts it down, Concord studio reflects on 'a heavily consolidated market' and says 'putting new things into the world is critical to pushing the medium forward'

Sony's Firewalk studio, developer of the canceled hero shooter Concord, has closed its doors, leaving behind a farewell message reflecting on its ambition and the challenges faced during development, including the pandemic, engine switch, and acquisition by Sony. The studio's ambitious vision for the game, despite its ultimate failure, serves as a testament to the risks taken in pushing the boundaries of the genre.

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Concord studio Firewalk has one final message to fans in the wake of its closure and the game's permanent cancelation, and it's a reflection on the studio's hard work and vision for the failed hero shooter.

On Tuesday, Sony put the final nail in Concord's coffin as it announced the definitive end to the game and the closure of developer Firewalk. Despite some last-minute hope that the game would come back from the dead, inspired by backend Steam updates, Concord is officially a thing of the past, and its studio shared a farewell message to Twitter with a few key reflections.

"Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience," reads the tweet, which goes on to reflect on some of the challenges the studio managed to overcome before release, including the pandemic, the switch from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, and its acquisition by Sony.

Ultimately, Firewalk says it shipped "a great FPS experience to players – even if it landed much more narrowly than hoped against a heavily consolidated market." The cutthroat state of the hero shooter space and the broader live service market, which routinely leaves even great games to starve, was a recurring talking point throughout Concord's floundering release. 

"We took some risks along the way – marrying aspects of card battlers and fighting games with first-person-shooters – and although some of these and other aspects of the IP didn’t land as we hoped, the idea of putting new things into the world is critical to pushing the medium forward," Firewalk says.

With Concord officially in the rear view, credible reporting suggests Sony has been forced to eat an estimated $200 million development deal, a price tag rivalling some of the publisher's biggest IP including The Last of Us 2 and Horizon Forbidden West.

Meanwhile, here are the best FPS games you can play right now.