Sony Studio Business Group CEO Herman Hulst has announced that the company has shut down Concord developer Firewalk Studios and mobile developer Neon Koi. According to the post on the official website, the studio closures follow in the wake of a company evaluation with Hulst stating,
“We consistently evaluate our games portfolio and status of our projects to ensure we are meeting near and long-term business priorities. As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen SIE’s Studio Business, we have had to make a difficult decision relating to two of our studios – Neon Koi and Firewalk Studios.”
Firewalk Studio’s closure comes a little under two months since the Concord servers were shut down two weeks after launch and the game removed from digital platforms due to its vastly underwhelming reception. On Steam, the all-time high for number of players since the official launch, according to Steam Charts, was 697 players. An epic failure given the game’s alleged budget of $400 million.
According to the announcement,
“Regarding Firewalk, as announced in early September (An Important Update on Concord), certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options.
After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
Closure of Firewalk Studios comes as a shock since, prior to this announcement, many speculated that the multiplayer hero shooter would be re-released as a free-to-play title as a way for Sony to give Concord another chance. But with the developer’s closure, that means Concord is officially and completely dead.
As for the closure of mobile developer Neon Koi, Hulst said,
“While mobile remains a priority growth area for the Studio Business, we are in the very early stage of our mobile efforts. To achieve success in this area we need to concentrate on titles that are in-line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to reach more players globally.
With this re-focused approach, Neon Koi will close, and its mobile action game will not be moving forward. I want to express my gratitude to everyone at Neon Koi for their hard work and endless passion to innovate.”
The closure of a mobile developer is curious considering how lucrative the mobile market is. What Neon Koi was developing is unclear as there was no game announced by them leading up to the studio being shut down. However, it closure coinciding with Firewalk Studios, could lead to speculation that Neon, like Firewalk, could have been developing a game that was focused on DEI like Concord was, a factor which led to the hero shooter being the recipient of many memes mocking the game’s character designs along with it being pay-to-play and released in a highly competitive market with F2P competitors.
Hulst concluded,
“I know none of this is easy news to hear, particularly with colleagues and friends departing SIE. Both decisions were given serious thought, and ultimately, we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization. Neon Koi and Firewalk were home to many talented individuals, and we will work to find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible.
I am a big believer in the benefits of embracing creative experimentation and developing new IP. However, growing through sustainable financials, especially in a challenged economic environment is critical.
While today is a difficult day, there is much to look forward to in the months ahead from the Studio Business Group and our teams. I remain confident that we are building a resilient and capable organization driven by creating unforgettable entertainment experiences for our players.
Thank you for your continued support.”
In a farewell statement, a post from the official Firewalk Studios X account states,
“Firewalk is signing off one last time.
Firewalk began with the idea of bringing the joy of multiplayer to a larger audience. Along the way we assembled an incredible team who were able to:
– Navigate growing a new startup into a team during a global pandemic: Firewalk was founded in 2018 and was very small for its first couple years, only entering full Production in 2022.
– Build a new, customized next-generation FPS engine in Unreal 4 -> 5, delivering top-tier gameplay feel, beautiful worlds, and a performant 60fps technical experience on a stable and scalable backend on PS5 and PC to hundreds of thousands of players in our beta.
– Manage an acquisition / integration while readying technical and preliminary tests.
– And ultimately ship and deliver a great FPS experience to players- even if it landed much more narrowly than hoped against a heavily consolidated market.
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.
The talent at Firewalk and the level of individual craft is truly world-class, and teams within Sony Interactive Entertainment and across the industry will be fortunate to work with them. Please reach out to Recruiting at PlayStation for inquiries, and thank you to all the very many teams, partners and fans who supported us along the way.
See you in the Tempest.
– Firewalk Studios …
[end transmission]”
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