Firewalk Studios, the developer behind PlayStation live-service hero shooter Concord, has apparently lost its lead director in the wake of the game’s disastrous launch.
Kotaku’s Ethan Gach reports that game director Ryan Ellis told staff last week that he would be stepping down from the role and moving into a more support position, according to multiple sources.
Ellis has been the face of the studio, and his name has been on all the statements PlayStation put out about the game, including the one that announced the shooter was going offline after just two weeks. It was also removed from online stores, and refunds were issued across all platforms.
“While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended,” the statement reads.
“Ryan deeply believed in that project and bringing players together through the joy in it,” one ex-developer told Kotaku. “Regardless of there being things that could have been done differently throughout development… he’s a good human, and full of heart.”
The sources further claim that the rest of the team is waiting to hear about their fate in the wake of Concord being taken offline to “explore options” that could help it hit better with players. While it’s possible the game could come back, many said they were skeptical, and are cleaning up their resumes and portfolios.
“Some have been asked to explore pitches for something completely different that Firewalk, which is currently around 150-170 employees, might work on next,” Gach wrote.
However, Gach further confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) Friday that the company suffered from a “head in the sand mentality” and “toxic positivity,” something that fellow Sony Interactive Entertainment studio Bungie reportedly had issues with in the leadup to a massive restructuring in August.
Concord is one of the most staggering video game failures in recent memory. After launching on PlayStation 5 and PC August 20, it struggled to pick up players. Around a week later, it was pulling in less than 700 concurrent players on Steam, and, according to analyst Simon Carless, it had sold around 25,000 units total. This was after around eight years of development. It was taken offline on September 6.
