Sony has announced the closure of Firewalk Studios, the developer behind the recently launched Concord game. The decision comes after a disastrous launch and poor sales performance, with estimates suggesting less than 25,000 copies sold against a four million dollar budget.
Sony’s move to shut down Firewalk Studios follows the game’s removal from online services on September 6, 2024, after a mere two weeks of availability. The closure impacts approximately 210 employees (according to Bloomberg). There’s no word on when the company decided to give up on Concord entirely.
Firewalk Studios, formed during the pandemic, was only able to make Concord before the closure. However, Concord was such a spectacular failure that it failed to meet Sony’s expectations despite its release on both PlayStation 5 and PC. Even with only 25,000 copies sold, that would only leave a gross of $1,750,000. That’s a farcry on what is needed to break even.
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Even Forspoken is considered a dud but sold far more copies than that. It’s hard to imagine that Sony would keep the studio alive at all. Unfortunately, this closer comes at the cost of employees at Neon Koi, who were also part of the layoffs.
Neon Koi was Sony’s mobile game development studio. The company was acquired by Sony in 2022 under its former name, Savage Game Studios, and was working on an unannounced mobile game. They are probably unrelated, but happening simultaneously may signal Sony is cracking down on projects that may not do well.
With very few details other than the studio being closed, we can only guess what Sony’s next move it. However, reporting an almost $400 million loss on top of eight years of wasted time and potential is a big deal. Stock owners will not be happy when Sony needs to explain things, but closing the studio looks like the best move.