Concord PS5 Flop: Woke Devs' Epic Meltdown Over This Game Fail!

Where is the audience that was supposed to flock to this game? Concord, a PlayStation 5 exclusive, with a development cost rumored between $50 million and $150 million, has flopped spectacularly. It’s hard to believe that this was the pitch that got the green light. I can’t help but think there might be something else at play here—maybe money laundering, government funding, or just pure insanity at Sony’s California headquarters. Some people even joke it’s all of the above. The game itself isn’t terrible—it’s serviceable, with some players even rating it as high as an eight. But when you consider it’s a $40 game competing in a market flooded with free-to-play, well-established titles, it’s no wonder the numbers are so low.

Just look at the pitiful comparison: Concord's peak of 697 players versus Black Myth: Wukong's 3 million concurrent players and 10 million units sold. Black Myth succeeded by avoiding any woke agenda and catering to gamers’ actual interests. This is a clear lesson that game companies should learn from, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Concord's failure is a stark reminder of what happens when a company is more focused on pushing an agenda than on making a game people want to play.

PC Gamer interviewed the development team, who spent eight years on this game, pouring their lives into it. Despite the dismal outcome, the lead developer expressed hope for the game’s future, clearly out of touch with reality. He claimed they're ready to push the game for years to come—words that sound more like a desperate attempt to hold onto his job than a realistic outlook on the game’s future.

Adding insult to injury, a former Concord developer who now works for PUBG Studios recently took to social media to defend the game against criticism. On X (formerly Twitter), user Anim_Xander celebrated Concord’s release, praising the team and the game as a labor of love. When a user expressed sympathy for the developer’s first AAA experience being tied to such a flop, Anim_Xander responded dismissively, calling critics "talentless freaks" and claiming not to care about the game’s poor performance. He even went as far as to hide critical replies, demanding $8 to unhide them, further showcasing the disconnect between the developers and the gaming community.

Firewalk Studios has made it clear they fully support an agenda of inclusion, which has been reflected in the game’s character designs and the inclusion of pronouns. Former World of Warcraft Team Lead Mark Kern pointed out that the company’s website proudly declares their commitment to a “collaborative, inclusive, and respectful team,” further alienating a large portion of their potential player base. The result? A peak of just 697 concurrent players on launch day, according to SteamDB—an utter disaster by any standard.

In the end, Concord’s launch is not just a failure; it's a cautionary tale of what happens when game companies lose touch with their audience in pursuit of ideological goals. Concord’s PS5 release, intended to be a blockbuster exclusive, has instead become a glaring example of what not to do. The beta version didn’t build any real hype, and the final release flopped even harder. It’s clear the game’s focus on DEI and its attempt to be “woke” overshadowed the need for solid gameplay and engaging content. With any luck, it might make it to a free-to-play model before it's completely forgotten, much like the ill-fated Concorde plane that also failed spectacularly. So, when you ask, "Did Concord fail?" or "Why did Concord fail?"—the parallels are uncanny. Concord has quickly become synonymous with both a game and an aircraft that had all the hype but couldn’t deliver where it mattered most.