By New claims about Sony PlayStation’s failed live service multiplayer shooter venture “Concord” have painted an even more grim picture than already thought.
Earlier this month, the title was famously pulled from release after just two weeks with reports indicating the big-budget game had sold as few as 25,000 copies across both PS5 and PC since its release on August 23rd.
Now former Playstation-covering IGN journalist turned Last Stand Media founder Colin Moriarty claims in a new video (via Push Square) to have spoken with a verified source directly involved in the project and alleges it cost $400 million to make, start to finish.
That would make it the most expensive game in PlayStation history. “The Last of Us Part II,” “God of War Ragnarok” and “Horizon: Forbidden West” each cost around $200-220 million to make while “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” came in at a whopping $315 million.
Moriarty continues, saying that the project was in development at Firewalk Studios long before PlayStation came onboard. The project’s budget was up to $200 million at the start of last year, prior to Sony acquiring the developer.
As the project was originally being funded by Probably Monsters, it’s unclear how much Sony contributed to that. After the acquisition and taking full control of it though, he says Sony allegedly spent a further $200 million getting the title ready to release.
The extra spending was reportedly necessary because the game was in a “disastrous state” early last year with “no player onboarding” or monetisation system in place. As a result, a lot of outsourcing was required to get the project into shape.
He claims the project was current PlayStation boss Herman Hulst’s “baby” and was being “heavily championed behind the scenes” with Sony viewing it “as the future of PlayStation”.
He adds: “They had such major ambition for this game that it was internally referred to as a Star Wars-like project for Sony. That it could be repeatedly revisited over and over and over again.”
Also not helping was a “toxic positivity” vibe among the game’s development which prevented any serious criticism: “You weren’t allowed to say anything [negative] internally about this game”.
So far, Moriarty’s report has not received any comment from PlayStation or Firewalk Studios, but if that response comes through, the story will be updated to include it.
Source: Long Island Viper, ComicBook.com, PushSquare
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