Secret Level’s Creator Showed Sympathy For the Talented Developers of Sony’s Biggest Flop, Concord

With the closure of Firewalk Studios by Sony, Concord is officially doomed. In the end, the costly, well-known live-service game was a failure, closing down two weeks after the number of active players fell into the double digits. The sales figures finally showed how difficult it was to launch a pay-to-play hero shooter in that market.

Among the more intriguing facets of Concord‘s legacy is the fact that the game’s universe serves as the backdrop for an episode of the animated anthology series Secret Level, which was produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Tim Miller’s Blur Studio. Every Secret Level episode takes place in a different video game universe, such as Spelunky, Armored Core, or The Outer Worlds. Given that the game had not yet been released at the time the episode was made, Concord was an intriguing choice.

Secret Level Director Doesn’t Understand Concord‘s Failure

Following Concord‘s shutdown, there were concerns about whether the episode would air, but in the end, a lot of people put a lot of effort into making it, and there’s no reason to let it go to waste.

Tim Miller, the creator of Secret Level, has nothing but praise for Concord, Firewalk Studios, and the episode they co-created. In an interview with Rolling Stone, this is what Miller had to say about the failure of the game:

There was no nicer, more invested group of developers than the team on Concord. I honestly don’t understand why it didn’t work. I know that they were trying to do the best they could, and they were a talented group of artists, so I feel terrible for that.

Although Concord‘s launch and shutdown so near to Secret Level‘s premiere isn’t ideal timing, it doesn’t appear to be a major problem for the TV show. Miller notes in the Rolling Stone interview that other entries also don’t originate from the most active franchises.

It’s not like this is a must for every videogame involved, as Mega Man and Unreal Tournament don’t appear to have much planned. Miller continues by expressing his hope that Secret Level will help launch new initiatives or at the very least bring attention to more established franchises.

Using the foundation and plots that Secret Level will lay out may be one way to encourage some developers to continue working on abandoned projects or stalled series.

Why Did Concord Fail?

In 2023, Sony acquired Firewalk Studios, the company that created Concord. After eight years of development, Concord was a costly game with custom cinematography and a long-term development plan that would have cost at least $100 million additionally, adding to the $400 million development cost.

Estimates indicate that it sold less than 25,000 copies during its two weeks on the market. Even in light of the other negative news that developers and studios have received this year, this is shocking.

It entered the crowded hero shooter genre, where many players already had favorite games (Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Valorant, to name three). Since hardly anyone was aware of Concord prior to its release, Sony’s marketing strategy for the game also appeared to be failing. Its characters and design were also criticized for being generic and lacking any particularly intriguing gameplay concepts.

Concord‘s failure also serves as a metaphor for existential issues in contemporary game development, which include the high cost and lengthy development process, which can cause a game to miss its mark years before it is released. Publishers are risk averse as a result of all of this, but if you’re just attempting to replicate what’s popular, it will be outdated by the time it’s done.

Taste plays a part in this. It should go without saying that live-service multiplayer games have a huge market; the majority of those individuals are simply already playing one.