PS5 players are roasting PlayStation CEO Hermen Hulst following the Concord disaster. In an unprecedented move, Sony is shutting the game down within two weeks of launch after speculations about its poor sales and future. To put it simply, Concord is not only Sony’s biggest flop, but it’s also one of the biggest flops in video game history, possibly on the same level as Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
To be clear, Sony’s push into live service began under former CEO Jim Ryan. However, Hulst — who replaced Ryan and shares the CEO position with Hideaki Nishino — was the head of PlayStation Studios and the driving force behind a number of IP and studio acquisitions, including Firewalk and Concord.
None of that matters as much as Hulst’s comments about Concord, though. Not only did he sing the game’s praises on the PS Blog, he also tweeted his excitement about it. Why’s that important? Well, it’s clear that Hulst was closely watching Concord’s development and he announced that he had been playing the game.
As an executive, he certainly should have anticipated that releasing an Overwatch-like game after Overwatch went free-to-play, and slapping a $40 price tag on it when similar games with established communities are available for free, wasn’t going to land. As I said twice before, Concord is about four years late to the party.
It’s no surprise, then, that this is what the discourse surrounding the game looks like:
The question is, did no one at Bungie — the live service experts hired by Sony to guide them on all things live service — point out the obvious?
