Sony withdraws game from sale after two weeks: ‘One of the biggest flops ever’

This article was last updated on September 4, 2024

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Sony withdraws game from sale after two weeks: ‘One of the biggest flops ever’

Sony is withdrawing the online video game Concord two weeks after it was released. If rode the company admits that the grandly announced game “was not received as we expected”.

It is one of the biggest flops ever for the PlayStation manufacturer, reports Bloomberg, among others. The game, which was released on PC and PlayStation, will be taken offline the day after tomorrow. Sony is giving players who purchased the game a refund.

‘Gigantic mistake’

Game journalist Ron Vorstermans, who presents several gaming podcasts, calls the withdrawal of the game “a very unusual step” and “a gigantic mistake”. Vorstermans sees one of the reasons why Sony has chosen to charge money for the purchase of the game. Many online competitors such as Call of Duty and Fortnite work with a model where you can play their games for free and then pay for extras such as special clothes or weapons.

Vorstermans: “But even if the game were free, it would have become difficult in this competitive genre of online shooting games. The betas (an unfinished version of the game, ed.) were also free and they were also not popular.”

This is what the game looks like:

Sony did not reveal how much money it cost to develop the game. According to business magazine Forbes, there are estimates that this is around 100 million dollars, but this is difficult to verify.

What was clear was that the game failed to take off at all after it was released. At its peak, 700 players on the online platform Steam played the game simultaneously. Vorstermans: “That is really devastating. Then it just stops. So few players at the peak, while in games like Fortnite those kinds of numbers are never that low.”

Other famous flopped games:

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – After the success of Steven Spielberg’s film, producer Atari thought he had struck gold with the license for a game. But it became one of the most legendary flops in gaming history. The game was reportedly put together in just five weeks and the results showed. 1.5 million copies were sold, but that was far too little to cover the costs.

Duke Nukem Forever (2011) – Duke Nukem was a popular game series in the 1990s based on the foul-mouthed anti-hero of the same name. In 1997, an ambitious new title was announced. Due to personnel problems, among other things, the title was ultimately only released in 2011. Although the game ultimately recovered its costs, it did not live up to expectations at all.

Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) – The Cyberpunk game cost around $300 million to make and had a huge audience. Eight million people ordered the game before it came out. But the game launch was disastrous: there were a huge number of them mistakes in the game and Sony and Microsoft gave users the option to get their money back. But: the makers promised improvement and continued to work on the game and that was appreciated. Last year it was announced that the game was sold 25 million times.

The Lord of The Rings: Gollum (2023) – “The game is so buggy that if the sluggish controls don’t kill you, glitches will,” wrote gaming website Kotaku. Other reviews were also not kind: the game around the character Gollum, created by writer Tolkien, looked as if it had been made ten years earlier and was unplayable, many said.

Sony says it is “exploring options, including those that will allow us to better reach our players.” This could indicate that the game will eventually be released for free with extras that players can then pay for.

Game journalist Vorstermans: “But that seems very strong to me. The game was really criticized in reviews and was therefore not popular even as a free beta version. Of course you never know, but I don’t see this happening anymore.”