Concord claims to be Sony’s ‘biggest loss ever’ with $400 million budget

Concord, Sony’s first-party multiplayer title, launched on PS5 and PC on August 23, but failed to draw in players with its Overwatch-style 5v5 hero shooter premise. After poor player numbers on Steam and lackluster sales, PlayStation parent pulled Concord on September 6 and refunded all players who had purchased the game. Two weeks later, the years-in-development online shooter that was supposed to be Sony’s big live service bet was a massive commercial failure. But a new claim from an industry insider has shed some light on just how big a flop Concord was for Sony.

Concord development costs

In the Sacred Symbols podcast, insider Colin Moriarty, citing a source who claimed to have worked on Concord, said that the game cost $400 million (approximately Rs. 3,341 crore) to make. He also said that the game was being internally touted as “the future of PlayStation,” with Sony believing that the game had the potential to become a Star Wars-like franchise.

“The reason I wanted to talk about it [Concord] is because some of the assumptions I made about the game were completely wrong, in terms of how much it cost and how much Sony actually lost on it,” Moriarty said on the podcast last week. “Concord cost about $400 million,” he added.

Sony’s reported loss

However, it’s unlikely that Sony covered the entire cost. According to Moriarty, around $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,670 crore) had already been spent on Concord’s development when the game entered alpha around the first quarter of 2023. It’s unclear how much of that development cost came from Sony, before the company bought Concord developer Firewalk Studios from previous owner, ProbablyMonsters, in April 2023.

According to Moriarty’s source, Sony then spent an additional $200 million on the game, bringing the total development cost to around $400 million. He claimed that Concord was in a “laughable state” during alpha, and that Sony therefore had to spend the additional $200 million to get the game to the “minimum viable product” stage.

Moriarty also claimed that Concord represented Sony’s “biggest loss ever on a game,” as the company had advanced the majority of the $400 million budget. “It’s the biggest game Sony has ever released from a first-party or second-party budget standpoint,” he said. “Let that sink in for a moment.”

Internal problems at Concord

The podcast also touched on the reasons for Concord’s massive failure. According to the source, the game was a “Star Wars-esque project” for Sony and was being called “the future of PlayStation.” It’s worth noting here that the Japanese company, traditionally known for its story-driven single-player games, has made a big push into live service titles in recent years; much of that effort has been scaled back after setbacks, with Sony reportedly halving the number of live service games planned for March 2026.

In the podcast, Moriarty also said that there was a “toxic positivity” about the game at Firewalk, where people were not allowed to speak against the game or criticize aspects of its development internally. He also added that the game was being promoted internally by Hermen Hulst, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Studio Business Group.

Sony didn’t share any details about Concord’s disastrous launch, nor did the company confirm or deny the game’s reported budget. Concord went offline on September 6 after experiencing poor sales and a negligible player base following launch. Sony confirmed that all sales of the game would be halted, and that players who purchased the game on PS5 or PC would receive full refunds. The hero shooter is no longer available to purchase on the PlayStation Store or PC storefronts like Steam and Epic Games Store.

Last week, a report claimed that Concord game director Ryan Ellis would step down and instead take on a supporting role.

Concord launched on PS5 and PC on August 23 with a price tag of $40, but subsequently failed to draw enough players. The game’s concurrent player count on Steam peaked at 697, and it sold an estimated 25,000 copies across PS5 and PC.