Sony has announced it will close Firewalk Studios, the developers behind its PlayStation title Concord, and mobile game studio Neon Koi. The closures come after a disappointing launch of Concord, which failed to meet Sony's expectations and was removed from platforms last month.
Although this is a very tough decision for Sony's part, this is an extremely crucial process to move forward for the welfare of company and its operations.
Poor Debut for Concord, and Strategic Reconsideration for Sony
Bloomberg reports that the closures affect about 210 employees. This also reflects a rethinking of Sony's live service and mobile game strategies.
Concord launched on Aug. 3 for both PS5 and PC. It was a mass launch, but the game sold less than 25,000 copies, and on Steam, it barely peaked at 697 players.
Sony took the heavy decision of removing Concord off the server on Sept. 6 which indeed turned out to be the major blow for the engagement and profitability levels. This sounds even harder to understand by comparison since Concord titles appear to have priced in considerably lower than that of those titles which, arguably, have lesser niche appeal but still go into a great deal: The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
"We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options. After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication," Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group said.
He added that they will take the lessons from this painful experience and use them to improve their live service offerings in the future.
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Neon Koi Studio Shut Down Despite Ambitions In Mobile Games
In addition to Firewalk Studios, Sony is closing down Neon Koi, the mobile game development studio acquired last year under its original identity as Savage Game Studios.
Hulst stated that "mobile remains a priority growth area" for Sony although the company has opted out of continuing work on the current project under Neon Koi, which is described as an unannounced, triple-A live-service, mobile action game.
The Neon Koi shut down becomes the readjustment mark of Sony's mobile strategy as the company diverts funds to other projects.
Hulst clarified that the refocused approach is to permanently shut down Neon Koi, confirming that its mobile action game won't progress anymore. He added that all these decisions have been thoroughly brought up to help Sony become stronger in the long term.
Future Prospects and Support for Affected Employees
While some of the game developers from Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi will be integrated into other Sony studios, most will simply become just another notch on the belt of a growing number of industry professionals hitting hard times because of layoffs, The Verge reports.
The wave of recent layoffs mirrors bigger problems within the game industry-it's an industry with high levels of competition, ever-increasing development costs, and evolving player expectations, all of which create this turbulent market environment.
Following some lessons learned from the failures of Concord and with further clarity on project viability, Sony is strengthening its upcoming game offerings on both its consoles and mobile devices.
