Before I address the elephant in the room, I’ll admit a few things. I played the beta since Sony opened it up to PS Plus users, and I enjoyed what Concord had to offer.

Firewalk Studios is comprised of veterans from the FPS industry, with talent from Battlefield and Destiny, and you can feel the influences of those titles in Concord. The gunplay is top-notch, boasting the weightiness of the remade Modern Warfare series. The graphics and art design are also incredible, with some maps giving heavy Destiny vibes such as the moon one with the skeleton in the middle. I liked the characters, with each Freegunner boasting a unique set of skills that’ll make opposition miserable if used right.

And… that’s about it.

Before Concord’s arrival, the biggest red flag, aside from the “cringe-inducing” State of Play trailer and that it’s yet another hero shooter, is that you’ll need to pay $40 to play this game. 

Fast forward to Concord’s launch, and unsurprisingly, it’s suffering immensely, with Steam Charts pointing towards lower player counts than banger titles like Redfall and Gollum.

I don’t want to dunk on Concord anymore than it has been, as numerous outlets have reported its sad player count. Yet, I can’t get past the fact that in 2024, some head honcho green-lit a $40 price tag for a hero shooter. 

Maybe it was due to Helldivers 2‘s explosion when it launched in February (it feels like it was February of last year). We saw how quickly Sony shot themselves in the foot with that one after the whole mandatory PSN debacle. 

Maybe it’s because it reportedly took eight years to get Concord out. Sony has to recoup those development fees somehow, especially with impressive visuals and weekly in-game narrative stories promised by Firewalk. Money doesn’t grow on trees, am I right?

But the market has changed exponentially since hero shooters arrived, and while it’s good to pay one solid fee and get everything rather than getting charged here and there for characters and more, there’s no way you can justify paying in 2024. For context, you can play Overwatch 2, Valorant, and Apex Legends (I know it’s a battle royale) for free, all hero shooters that cater to different player bases.

Most of Concord’s modes are copies of popular modes like Kill Confirmed, Team Deathmatch, and others, so it’s not like you’re missing out on much.

What concerns me is that post-Helldivers 2, Sony’s first big foray into live service, we get Concord. I don’t know how deep Sony plans to dive into live services but with Haven Studios and Jade Raymond’s Fairgame$ under the PS umbrella, who knows how that’ll play out. Bear in mind Fairgame$ already has some negative sentiment around it, since its reveal last year announced it’s a “competitive heist experience.”

Listen, I don’t enjoy dunking on games unless it’s Call of Duty or a well-deserved catastrophe like The Day Before. Concord has solid bones here, but with how it’s positioned, it won’t be surprising if next year spells the end of it via the classic Twitter JPEG we’ve come to know and love.

Going free-to-play should’ve been the move from the beginning, and while they could still pivot to F2P, it’d feel like a disservice to those who spent big bucks to play this. If you enjoy Concord, please continue to do so. For the rest of us though, this is certainly disappointing, although the writing was on the wall.

Edit: Shortly after posting this, Foamstars, that weird foam party game, announced it’s going F2P. I find that hilarious since it was free for a month then it charged people, and now we’re here.