Sony has announced that live-service hero shooter Concord will be shutting down effective Friday, and that all players who have purchased the game will be entitled to refunds.
In a PlayStation Blog post, Sony says that it's been "listening closely" to Concord feedback. The studio says that while many of Concord's qualities "resonated" with its player base, "other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn't land the way we'd intended".
For that reason, Sony says it's taking Concord offline on September 6th, which is this Friday. The company says that it will "explore options, including those that will better reach our players".
In addition to taking the game's servers offline, Sony says it'll be offering "a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC". That's everyone who bought it, since Concord isn't available on any other platforms.
If you bought it either from the PlayStation Store or from PlayStation Direct, you'll be issued a refund "back to your original payment method".
Things are a little different if you purchased Concord from other platforms. Steam players will be issued a refund "over the coming days", as will the Epic Games Store. Physical retailers, meanwhile, will have their own refund processes to which you should refer if you bought the game from them.
Once you've received your refund, you won't have access to Concord anymore, which suggests that Sony isn't just going to be taking this one offline for a few weeks.
Sony taking Concord offline is a stunning blow to a game that was supposed to be one of the cornerstones of the studio's live-service approach.
Last year, Sony revealed that it would release just six of its previously-planned twelve live-service games before the end of the 2025 fiscal year, and since Concord is presumably one of those six games, its failure should probably cause Sony execs to do some serious soul-searching.
It's remarkable that Sony is choosing to take Concord offline less than two weeks after its launch, but given that the game attracted just shy of 700 concurrent players at its peak (on Steam, that is), it's a decision that makes some sense. Stay tuned for more on this.
