Sony Interactive Entertainment's decision on September 3 to shutter and take offline its upcoming title "Concord," less than two weeks after its launch, is the latest and most devastating blow yet to what was once an ambitious attempt at developing live-service games.
Concord is closing for good
But the $40 upfront pricing plan for “Concord” was a tough sell, as free-to-play games are the norm for most live services.
It’s already tough for a new live service to break through, with five titles accounting for more than a quarter of all playtime across console and PC last year. But the free-to-play model is here to stay, requiring such games to constantly and permanently add new content to keep things affordable.
Affordability and developer bandwidth are key aspects that can keep live services going for years, especially in the case of PlayStation. But after Sony acquired Bungie in 2022, the studio struggled to release new updates fast enough to keep things afloat, resulting in multiple layoffs and other parts of the studio being scaled back.
