You may not have heard of Concord. It’s a video game that recently came out, a first-person shooter produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The original idea for the game started 8 years ago and it was developed by Firewalk Studios. Apparently, it cost $200 million to develop and advertise. It launched on 23rd August this year.
This was going to be Sony’s Overwatch. A new IP, a new world build, with spin-offs, cartoons and, with a bit of luck, a movie.
Sony have just announced that the game servers will be taken offline on 3rd Sept. All players who bought the game will be refunded. It was dead on arrival, losing a stupid amount of money.
Steam figures show how many people played Concord, over how many people played Squirrel with a Gun.
Why The Failure?
Here is a screenshot of one of the main characters.
I don’t really need to go on, do I? I will go on though, because this is funny.
Concord was dead on arrival because of DEI. According to one report, Firewalk Studios demanded that pronouns be used in the game and senior leaders were very open about “decreasing straight white males” at the company.
As a straight white male, I’m offended. I’m going to totally boycott this game and ma…oh wait, that’s exactly what happened!
One of the higher-ups at Firewalk Studios identifies as “non-binary”. They go by the pronoun of “Professor”. He/she/it has never had a PhD and has never taught, but forced everyone to use their preferred pronoun “Professor”. If people didn’t, they were at risk of being fired.
The “Professor” greatest hits, according to insiders, include:
- Tried to fire, or just outright fire, people who were unvaccinated.
- All staff had to use everyone else’s pronouns within all communications.
- DEI is “embedded into every facet of its company culture”.
- HR openly voiced its desire to reduce the number of straight white men, without repercussions.
- Slack channels for “women only”, and others for “minority groups only”.
- Any employees that spoke out against the culture, or design of the game, were quickly fired and/or blacklisted.
I’m guessing that the “Professor” thought that being a non-binary, fluid gender, half parrott, ethnic minority, sasquatch meant he/she/they could get away with anything. At the time, they probably could, but now they have just cost Sony $200 million. I’m hoping Sony sends he/she/them packing.
A Turning Point?
I’m just spitballing here, but I wonder if the tide is turning? The entertainment industry, both movies and gaming, cannot sustain such failure as Concord.
We recently saw how Season 2 of The Acolyte has been cancelled. That cost Disney a cool $180 million. Willow was so bad they even deleted it from their servers. Willow only cost $100 million though, so that was OK.
I know to you and me, $200 million is life changing amount of money. To places like Sony and Disney, it’s a flea fart in a hurricane. However, they cannot sustain this kind of loss. At some point, the shareholders, the accountants and everyone else who wants to get paid will have to take action.
With the colossal failure of Concord, can we get back to just having good entertainment? I just want to see a movie without having DEI rammed down my throat.
By the way, my pronouns are now “Greatest movie reviewer of all time”. And if you don’t use it, I’m going to ban your IP addresses from the site.