Sony's CEO Commented on Concord's Failure. Hiroki Totoki Explains What Went South and Pledges Lessons Learned
Important people from Sony, in an interview with investors, discussed the failure of Concord.
Concord turned out to be the biggest flop of the year, perhaps even the biggest in the history of the gaming industry. The servers of this online shooter were shut down just 11 days after the launch, and last week the Firewalk studio responsible for the project was closed, ultimately burying any - even purely theoretical - chances that the title may return in a changed form in the future. While discussing Sony's financial results, one of its CEOs, Hiroki Totoki, commented on the failure.
Totoki stated that Sony is still learning how to navigate in the category of games-as-a-service and sometimes this will result in flops. With a new brand like Concord, you never know for sure if it will be successful.
However, the company intends to draw conclusions from this failure. Totoki believes that Concord tests started too late. In the future, for a game of this type, both internal employees and players are to be involved much earlier, so that it can be determined whether the project is not heading in the wrong direction, and necessary fixes can be introduced.
Totoki also explains that Sony's problem is that the company is divided into many departments and groups, which are independent organizations. Therefore, better communication and cooperation between them is needed in the future.
In the same conversation with investors, one of the vice presidents of Sony, Sadahiko Hayakawa, pointed out that this year the company has released two games-as-a-service. While Concord turned out to be a flop, Helldivers 2 was a big success and both titles became valuable lessons for the corporation. The findings from their analysis will be shared with all of Sony's developer studios.
Hayakawa also stressed that the failure of Concord doesn't mean that Sony will withdraw from gaming services. According to him, the company needs to have both types of positions in its offer, as well as classic single-player titles. This second type is much more predictable in terms of financial potential. On the other hand, the first category involves greater risk, but the potential financial rewards are significantly higher.
Death Stranding and Ghost of Yotei in 2025
It's worth mentioning that during the conversation with investors, it was confirmed that the releases of Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei are set to take place next year.
