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Kotaku: Sony's Concord might be the biggest entertainment failure of all time, so why wasn't it news?

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ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch

In the summer of 2024, an entertainment project went more spectacularly wrong than possibly any entertainment project in human history. A venture that cost an approximated $400 million, and is thought to have made back only $1 million, representing a flop that dwarfs the likes of movie disasters Joker: Folie à Deux and Borderlands. Yet, if you don’t read the specialist gaming press, there’s a really good chance you’ve never even heard of it.

Why this enormous story remains so obscure taps into a deeply peculiar issue with the broad mainstream press and its decades-long refusal to accept a reality in which video games are a normal part of everyday life.

Concord was a multiplayer shooter game, in development for eight years by one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world, Sony. Released into a very crowded market of what’s become known as “hero shooters”—games in which players pick from predesigned heroic characters and team up for online battles—it felt generic, derivative, and, in its character designs, narrative concepts, and use of color, outrageously reminiscent of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

However, even with all those factors, no one could possibly have predicted the scale of its failure. This game, released on August 23 to the PlayStation 5 console and PC, sold an estimated 25,000 copies, and never saw more than 700 people playing at once on PC. It was such a colossal disaster that Sony took the entire game offline some 14 days later, then deleted all evidence of it ever having existed from their websites and online stores. This erasure even extended to removing the purchased game from PS5 owners’ gaming catalogs.

If all the estimated figures from industry experts are correct—and Sony has never rushed forward to say they’re not—this is a project that made $1 million and lost $399 million. For comparison, the biggest movie box office loss of all time was Disney’s 2012 film, John Carter, which grossed $284.1 million, while losing $255 million.

Yet, if you search the website of the New York Times for the word “concord,” you will not find a single result mentioning the game. Search for “Folie à Deux and you’ll find a handful of pieces, including one reporting its significant box office losses.

The chances are, if you’re watching Good Morning America or reading a piece in your chosen business magazine, when the topic of gaming come up it’ll begin something like this:

“Video games have come a long way since the days of Pong!”

It’s wince-inducing cringe, spoken as if from another dimension where video gaming wasn’t an international industry that dwarfs movies, television, publishing, a part of daily life for the last half of a century.


Gif: Wikipedia

Imagine if, when your chosen breakfast television programming turned to the news that a major movie had flopped at the box office, it began with the words,

“Films have come a long way since The Horse in Motion!”

The Impenetrable Wall​

The colossal failure of Joker 2 has received blanket coverage across all mediums. It’s a good story, of course! The first film, 2019’s Joker, defied all expectations—an R-rated $70 million movie from the director of the Hangover films, that went on to gross over $1 bn. So here comes this sequel five years on, but now instead of a Taxi Driver homage, it’s improbably a courtroom drama musical starring Lady Gaga. Could director Todd Phillips repeat his unlikely alchemy a second time? No, and how.

So of course that’s a juicy tale to tell, a piece of entertainment schadenfreude, a car crash we can all rubberneck for days. So, you know, it seems plausible you could also write such stories about Concord. You could make an editorial pitch for “The Biggest Entertainment Disaster Of All Time.” That’s a headline, right? That’s oh-so clicky.

And yet, this separation between the wider news media and video gaming is so solid, so impenetrable, that Concord has received negligible coverage at best. Gaming specialists at major outlets have picked it up, of course. Gene Park neatly covered it for The Washington Post, but as an opinion column, rather than a news story, beginning with a personal anecdote about theme parks. But trying to find an actual mainstream news piece about this epic entertainment story has left me bewildered.

I searched ABC News’s site, then CNN’s, looking for cursory stories I could usefully critique, before wondering if I was using the wrong search terms. Perhaps I was listing the results incorrectly. No matter how I looked, however, I could not find a single mention of the game or its failure on either. Then again, CNN’s Entertainment section only has subcategories for “Movies,” “Television,” and “Celebrity.”

The BBC did have a news story on the subject! Except this was filed under a “Newsbeat” byline, the BBC’s youth-based news outlet primarily broadcast on its youth-aimed music radio stations. Because, of course, this story of a business losing nearly half a billion dollars is for the kids!

This is indicative of that ever-more inexplicable separation, this imaginary wall that the press has built around itself to—for some reason—keep gaming out.

Fifty Years Later​


An official screenshot of Concord, which looks like someone trying to take an image to make the game look bad.

Screenshot: Sony

This made more sense in the 1990s. Video games became mainstream in the 1980s, and despite the reality that a huge number of games were primarily aimed at adults, the penetrative aspects were the cartoony images of Mario and Pac-Man. Nevermind the outstanding successes of franchises like Elite and Ultima, and so many more besides. Nor indeed the popularity of those cartoon-like games among adults. Instead, those video game things—they were just for kids. They were a children’s thing, a frippery, and covering them would be like reviewing Saturday morning cartoons, right?

So even by the late ‘90s, when gaming was an established pursuit, where best-selling titles like Grand Theft Auto were being released with adult-only certification and enormous multi-billion dollar industries had been built up around the hardware, software, and coverage of the medium, in the minds of the mainstream it still somehow only existed as this peculiarity, an inexplicable distraction of the Other, the geeks and the nerds and the losers and the kids. They’d sure come a long way since Pong, but not far enough to be taken at all seriously.

It was long-assumed that this was a result of the age of the people running the newsrooms. These people, they were born in the ‘50s, the ‘60s, and gaming was anathema to them. But eventually they’d grow old, retire, and a new generation would arrive who were born in the ‘70s and ‘80s, people for whom gaming had at least been present in their childhood. At this point, as the establishment re-established itself, we could escape this anachronism. And yet, it didn’t happen. At the end of the ‘90s, when the astonishing success of the PlayStation 2 saw the pursuit rapidly become a core part of mainstream entertainment, the media remained utterly detached from the phenomena.

Surely, by the 2010s, as 40-somethings who’d spent their teenage years playing Tomb Raider and Diablo arrived on the floors of the newspapers and TV networks, gaming would finally escape its news purgatory? No, even as gaming moved ahead of movies to become by far the larger industry, the non-gaming media just continued to ignore it. Cut to today, and we’ve got a story on the scale of Concord, and for so many outlets, it doesn’t even merit a mention. Not even as the frivolous, “fun” story at the end of a local news broadcast.

Obviously there’s no easy answer to “Why?” but it’s very likely due to the incompatible nature of games and non-interactive media. You can show a clip of a movie on your TV channel, and publish an excerpt from a book in your newspaper pages. The very nature that defines gaming, however, is untransferable, and the last 50 years are littered with disastrous attempts to portray gaming on TV. This incompatibility, the conflicting nature of the mediums, likely helps maintain this wedge.

We’re All Playing Games​

It’s so tempting, even in a third decade of working as a games journalist, to protest my own argument with, “But not everyone plays games, yet everyone goes to the movie theater!” But it’s simply not true. (Ask anyone who owns a movie theater, for instance.) Gaming has a mainstream ubiquity that even the readers of specialist gaming sites don’t really want to believe it has, mostly out of snobbery, because that success largely comes down to things like the multi-billion dollar Call of Duty franchise and the monolithic success of mobile games like Candy Crush—excellent games that have broad appeal, and so are perceived by some as undermining the niche details they might love about their lesser-known games. It’s blandly normal to own a PlayStation or an Xbox, and utterly abnormal not to have a few games installed on a smartphone.

There is, at this point, no rational reason for the CNNs and Boston Globes of the world not to cover a story as massive, as cataclysmic, as the $400 million entertainment failure Sony suffered this year. Hell, on its face it’s a juicy tale to tell, a piece of entertainment schadenfreude, a car crash we can all rubberneck for days. In the end, as much as we might try to excuse, explain, or justify such a blindspot, it simply comes down to a failure.

Not covering the extraordinary story of Concord reveals a deep failure in the mainstream press, and one born of a silly prejudice against a medium that towers over the films and television that such outlets are willing to understand.

It no longer makes sense to believe it will soon have to change. Surely, we might want to think, surely the next generation of editors and journalists will recognize the reality in which they exist? But the evidence suggests they simply won’t, instead continuing to just assume that gaming is a niche interest in which their readers are not involved, despite likely having played a game of Zen Word or Block Blast on their phone during the subway ride to work that morning themselves. And they’ll leave a blockbuster story like that of Concord aside entirely.
 

sono

Gold Member
op said:
For comparison, the biggest movie box office loss of all time was Disney’s 2012 film, John Carter, which grossed $284.1 million, while losing $255 million.

I never knew that either.

But that is why - the mainstream press dont talk about huge losses in media for more than 1 minute unless the company goes under
 

LRKD

Member
I imagine a large part of the reason it isn't 'news worthy', is because the large majority of people working in news media, have the same opinion as those who worked on concord, and thus it isn't in their interest to report on it failing so spectacularly. So you will only see it from more independent sources, and those who are called 'grifters'
 
I think part of it is that games while the biggest games make more money than blockbuster movies, movie box office numbers are based on a lower price of entry and they're single purchase. So it's way more people in a short period of time with eyes on them at the onset. Video games less people the first month but higher return per customer over time. So movies/music could reach hundreds of millions people in a month or two whereas games maybe tens of millions. Besides easy to run mobile games. Those can probably get 100 million+ downloads in a month. Video game news content won't drive volume of clicks like other popular media
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Waterworld is the closest i can think of and that's not close, what else you got?

They pulled Concord early, so they can retool and relaunch it down the line. A process that won't cost that much money relative to a new product launch.

There is no equivalent scenario outside of videogames.

And this is a particularly interesting case because unlike say, Final Fantasy XIV, which SE not only had to rebuild from the ground up in order to become a success, also incurred the expense of being propped up for year in its original form, Sony have made no effort to salvage Concord v1.0 in the marketplace.
 

clarky

Gold Member
They pulled Concord early, so they can retool and relaunch it down the line. A process that won't cost that much money relative to a new product launch.

There is no equivalent scenario outside of videogames.

And this is a particularly interesting case because unlike say, Final Fantasy XIV, which SE not only had to rebuild from the ground up in order to become a success, also incurred the expense of being propped up for year in its original form, Sony have made no effort to salvage Concord v1.0 in the marketplace.

FF is fairly successful though, you suggested there were bigger flops than Concord. As things stand right now i dont think there is.

Also i don't think a releaunch will save this game, the same people who shat ot out are trying to fix it, the only thing it will provide is more hilarity.
 
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Honestly, Kotaku deserves credit for this article.

Concord's failure might be ignored by big news sources partly for ideological reasons, it's true. But I think it's more that video games are incomprehensible to a large portion of traditional media's audience, especially games like Concord. After all, I didn't see wall-to-wall coverage of Concord crashing and burning on Fox News either, did you?

Movies are comprehensible objects, and have been a big part of culture for longer than anyone alive today. Everyone understands how movies work. Especially big-budget, wide-release movies. You sit there and watch a story for 2 hours. Every boomer gets that. And the artistic nature of highbrow movies is obvious at a glance, and can usually be associated with some specific, big-name auteur director. And budget and box office numbers are easy to come by.

A hero shooter is different. It just looks like a clusterfuck of arbitrary explosions to the average viewer. How do you explain what that is to a boomer? How do you explain what makes it special, or where all the money went? How do you explain what makes Concord's game modes different from Overwatch's? That's fairly opaque even to the average console gamer, let alone some Monopoly Go!-playing normie or hidden item game girlie.

Same reason why the Overwatch League was a laughable idea. General audiences are never going to watch Overwatch like it's a spectator sport. I don't care if esports are popular with terminally-online people forming parasocial relationships on Twitch. Season-ticket-buying Boomer Bill is never going to be able to grok that shit, let alone keep up with balance patches, new classes, etc. It's miles away from the classical elegance and instant readability of soccer, football, or even baseball or cricket.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
FF is fairly successful though, you suggested there were bigger flops than Concord. As things stand right now i dont think there is.

Also i don't think a releaunch will save this game, the same people who shat ot out are trying to fix it, the only thing it will provide is more hilarity.

Reread my original post - I stressed not the biggest flop YET.

Not saying it couldn't turn out to be that in the final analysis, just that the current situation is very much one where Sony have evidently decided ***not to try and salvage the launch***; they didn't spend on additional marketing, they didn't discount the game to improve sales, they simply refunded buyers and quickly pulled it off sale.

There is only one reason for taking that approach; to pivot and relaunch.
 
not reading Kuntaku.

gaming media is completely irrelevant for gamers. YouTubers on the other side are the ones actually doing the job these hacks have to do, and believe me... Concord's falirue was not only news, but and event and celebration.

It's funny how powerless gaming media has become.
 

clarky

Gold Member
Reread my original post - I stressed not the biggest flop YET.

Not saying it couldn't turn out to be that in the final analysis, just that the current situation is very much one where Sony have evidently decided ***not to try and salvage the launch***; they didn't spend on additional marketing, they didn't discount the game to improve sales, they simply refunded buyers and quickly pulled it off sale.

There is only one reason for taking that approach; to pivot and relaunch.
That won't work either like i said, it'll just cost more money. The core game is decidedly mid.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
  • Joker 2 just came out and is going to digital in 2 weeks. Looks like it'll barely make its production budget of $200m back during its theatrical run. This after the first one made over billion dollars on a $70m budget
  • Fyre Festival was a thing
  • Dial of Destiny barely made its budget back
  • Universal announced and did a whole photoshoot with the cast of their Monster-Verse
  • Jennifer Lopez World Tour that was cancelled because - surprising only Jennifer Lopez - no one gives a shit about her as a singer
  • Anthem
Just off the top of my head.

But sure... "of all time" lol. These people need to get out of their bubbles.
 
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clarky

Gold Member
  • Joker 2 just came out and is going to digital in 2 weeks. Looks like it'll barely make its production budget of $200m back during its theatrical run. This after the first one made over billion dollars on a $70m budget
  • Fyre Festival was a thing
  • Dial of Destiny barely made its budget back
  • Universal announced and did a whole photoshoot with the cast of their Monster-Verse
  • Jennifer Lopez World Tour that was cancelled because - surprising only Jennifer Lopez - no one gives a shit about her as a singer
Just off the top of my head.

But sure... "of all time" lol

If you believe Colin (i dont) then Concord has lost more than all of those so far, even at 250m its right up there.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
If you believe Colin (i dont) then Concord has lost more than all of those so far, even at 250m its right up there.
You're right. If you believe him, yeah. But I don't either.

Concord might be the biggest financial failure in the games industry so far, but biggest entertainment failure of all time? I think that requires financial and reputational damages. Playstation came out of this unscathed. If anything, thanks to Astro Bot, Concord has been largely forgotten by people outside of their accounting offices.
 
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Rockman33

Member
John Carter isn’t the biggest bomb of all time if we are talking production costs. Just a complete lie of a statement.

The marvels cost around 374 mill. It’s grossed back 206.
-168

John Carter cost 306. It grossed 284.
-22

Obviously this doesn’t consider in what the studio actually gets back from the gross. Different rates for different countries and how long it’s in theaters.
Nor does this account for marketing.
 

Rockman33

Member
I never knew that either.

But that is why - the mainstream press dont talk about huge losses in media for more than 1 minute unless the company goes under
John Carter certainly lost them a lot of money. But it’s by no means the biggest lost of all time.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
It’s wince-inducing cringe, spoken as if from another dimension where video gaming wasn’t an international industry that dwarfs movies, television, publishing, a part of daily life for the last half of a century.

Not exactly true. Video games dwarf movies, TV and publishing in revenue generated, but this is only because video games are more expensive.

Far more people watch films/TV or read books than play video games. I understand Kotaku wanted this Concord story covered by major news outlets, but the truth is most of the world just wouldn't care. It's not news for the majority.
 
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