“Many players know about Concord, and what happened with that project,” wrote the developer. “Concord failed to inspire players, and the messages was heard loud and clear. It was gut wrenching to see our project fail, and be the laughing stock of many online. I have learned that failure, is what drives me to succeed. No one feels as bad as the people who put their time on the line, hoping it will entertain the masses of gamers across the globe. I am not asking for pity, or even sympathy because, after all this is the name of the game, you win or lose. The margin for success is very thin. I took a chance, and lost.”

The developer also talks about being excitement after getting a look at Marathon, as well as seeing the people working hard at making the game.

“Some of you probably smell blood in the water, and probably want to roast me for no longer lurking, and exposing myself,” they continued. “I hope you don’t, and see that people create these projects, and work very hard to be the next big thing. Seeing the faces of the developers on the Bungie stream, gave me hope, and excitement for what is to come for Marathon.”

“I commend them for taking a chance, trying something foreign to them, that isn’t proven, nor guaranteed to succeed. It takes a lot of courage.”

Further in the Reddit thread, the developer spoke about how players shouldn’t already be judging a game before its release. In a comment, they wrote that “to call [Marathon] a failure before it’s even out, is wild to me.”

Details about Marathon were revealed over the previous weekend with a gameplay showcase. Among the things revealed was the fact that Marathon will be coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 23, with a closed alpha test starting on April 23. At launch, the extraction shooter will feature 3 maps and 6 playable characters, referred to in-game as Runners.

In an interview, game director Joe Ziegler spoke about wanting to give players the polish they expect from a shooter developed by Bungie with layers of gameplay that will help players tell their own emergent stories through wins and losses in the gameplay sandbox.

“I do think that the ceiling could rise from where it’s at currently,” Ziegler said. “And part of that is I think that we have a whole generation of people who are growing up in sandbox experiences. We have [battle royale] players, we have players who are playing other sandbox shooters as their main game as they were growing up. And for them, they’re creating a lot of these stories, but a lot of the stories that they’re creating are framed by the systems that those games embrace, right?”

Marathon will not be a free-to-play game. Bungie, however, has not yet confirmed its price.

In the latest Game Mess podcast, GiantBomb’s Jeff Grubb revealed that the cancelled live-service titles from Bluepoint Games and Bend Studio were reportedly due to Concord. “This happened because of Concord. Like, this should be clear. That’s what I’ve been told.

“Sony has been shell-shocked from Concord, and now they’re going around to every studio and reassessing every project. If it’s a live-service project, there’s a lot of friction against it, preventing it from getting a chance to come out.”

He also reports that these were the main projects from both studios. Alongside Concord, they join the likes of cancelled multiplayer titles for The Last of Us and Marvel’s Spider-Man, the rumored Twisted Metal reboot and Sony London’s fantasy RPG.

Sony noted that the cancellations won’t result in studio closures, but it’s unknown if there will be layoffs. Plans are underway to discuss the future, so stay tuned for further updates.

LEVEL ZERO: EXTRACTION

Doghowl Games’ extraction shooter is currently in early access, so technically, it can get better- but that isn’t the trajectory it has followed thus far. Level Zero: Extraction had a promising enough premise, but was let down by significant gameplay and balancing issues even at launch. In the time since then, the developer has consistently made updates that have proven unpopular with players, leading some to wonder just how healthy the game’s future is going to be.

Star Wars Outlaws

As iffy as certain things looked before launch, there was still some hope for Star Wars Outlaws from Massive Entertainment’s involvement alone. The Reputation and Wanted system, more organic exploration, and focus on single-player were all the right moves, but it didn’t land for consumers. Those who took the plunge suffered numerous bugs and issues with movement, combat, AI, stealth, and so on. It’s a better game now, but Outlaws still needs work.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

Even with successes like Helldivers 2, this year just wasn’t it for live-service titles. However, the negative response to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League began well prior, with many criticizing the looter shooter’s format. The release sadly did nothing to rise to the occasion, featuring a horrendous story that falls off a cliff, insufferable characters, and the same dreary games-as-a-service mission structure seen hundreds of times before. With a $200 million impact on Warner Bros. Discovery’s revenue, Suicide Squad clearly didn’t meet expectations.

Skull and Bones

Alleged reboots, high-profile departures, constant delays, and a ballooning budget – Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones had all the key ingredients for a potential disaster. Adding in all the live-service staples like seasons, always-online gameplay, a focus on multiplayer, and whatnot hastened the game’s doom (calling it a quadruple-A title also didn’t help). With player numbers reportedly coming in at less than a million around launch, it was a failure before it even got started.

Planet Coaster 2

Incredible visuals and the studio’s penchant for attention to detail did little to make a difference for Planet Coaster 2, which is, by all accounts, a hotly awaited sequel, that much more palatable. The awful UI, pathing issues, lackluster pools, awful characters and various bugs were just too significant to ignore, even with the better campaign. Frontier has rolled out improvements, and it will likely excel in the long run, but for now, Planet Coaster 2 is an underwhelming ride.

Farming Simulator 25

After the failure of Farming Simulator 23 (at least on Nintendo Switch), Farming Simulator 25 marked a return for the franchise to consoles and PC. It shipped with extensive bugs, an annoying user interface, jarring physics, and multitudes of other issues that remain. That’s on top of the unoptimized performance on PC, which hinders the otherwise strong environmental effects and textures. Mods will likely make it a better experience over time but at this point, fans would appreciate a strong title out of the gate (which certainly applies to our next choice).

Starfield: Shattered Space

Starfield had its share of mixed impressions after launching last year and Shattered Space seemed like the perfect opportunity to address many issues while offering a fresh slate. However, the hand-crafted planet of Var’uun’kai delivered the most rudimentary content and barren surroundings to go with lackluster characters and story-telling. Even the intriguing gravity anomalies barely appear after a point.

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

I was excited about Stormind Games’ first-person horror, especially with how it leveraged the films and their mechanics. Unfortunately, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is a hugely linear, highly scripted experience with bizarre AI, questionable design decisions, and a predictable story that fails to really leverage its endearing characters.

Concord

Sony’s biggest first-party failure in years, Concord was seemingly doomed from its first proper reveal, especially when the hero shooter elements became apparent. After a beta with abysmal numbers, it would launch to middling reviews and reportedly sold only 25,000 copies. Sony initially pulled the title from sale and shut down servers before eventually shuttering it and Firewalk Studio.

Rise of the Ronin

Director Fumihiko Yasuda revealed around June that Rise of the Ronin was Koei Tecmo’s best-selling game so far, with the publisher even reporting higher sales than Nioh. That’s all great, but the game itself fell short of what we expected in terms of open-world activities and storytelling. At least the combat remains enjoyable, and Team Ninja has provided some extensive post-launch content for free.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The first Dragon Age title in ten years was bound to have astronomical expectations, especially with all the rumors and reports of reboots. Combat was sharp despite pivoting to a real-time hack-and-slash approach and the environments are gorgeous, without a doubt. It’s everything else that either whelmed or disappointed, from the uneven characterization and writing to the mission structure. Though it wasn’t BioWare’s worst, it’s far from being its best.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Significant improvements over last year’s game don’t excuse Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 from disappointing in other ways. Despite a superior campaign, its story ultimately felt flat (and continued the same cliffhanger approach), while multiplayer fell short with its map design. Zombies is surprisingly good despite some balance issues, and while the overall experience classifies as “good,” it’s nowhere near the series’ heights.

Unknown 9: Awakening

There’s always some skepticism when a developer gets ahead itself and plans out an entire universe for its IP before the first game even launches. Unfortunately, Unknown 9: Awakening loaded its bland premise with dull writing and boring combat, while various bugs and performance issues weighed even heavier. Suffice it to say that with an all-time peak concurrent player count of 285 on Steam at launch, Unknown 9: Awakening failed to meet any expectations heaped on it.

MultiVersus

From promising platform fighter to being pulled and relaunching earlier this year in a worse form, MultiVersus has had quite the journey. It’s hard to pinpoint all the issues, be it the sheer lack of quality-of-life features at launch or how underwhelming Rifts felt after they finally went live, but above all else, the feel and fluidity from the open beta felt like it was missing. And unfortunately, Player First Games hasn’t been able to capture the magic ever since.

XDefiant

Initially revealed as part of the Tom Clancy series, XDefiant would become a standalone entity while still crossing over with the publisher’s various other titles. However, despite some responsive shooting, it couldn’t match the features and content of other free-to-play shooters at launch. Various issues like network performance also affected it, causing a sharp downturn. Maybe there’s still time to right the ship, but based on the company’s other live-service endeavors, XDefiant’s days could be numbered.

Outcast: A New Beginning

Developing a sequel to a niche title from the late 90s is unusual on its own, but perhaps Outcast: The New Beginning could cater to long-time fans. What it offered was a massive world with nothing exciting, loading up players with menial tasks and awful writing. Appealing as it may be for those seeking more old-school-style titles, A New Beginning felt more like an awkward continuation for a cult-classic series.

Though Firewalk Studios said it was looking at feedback to improve the experience, Sony made the call to permanently shelve the title and shut down the studio. In a Q&A session following the company’s earnings, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki discussed (transcription via VGC) the title’s failure and how the studio is still “in the process of learning.”

“With regards to new IP, of course, you don’t know the result until you actually try it. So for us, for our reflection, we probably need to have a lot of gates, including user testing or internal evaluation, and the timing of such gates. And then we need to bring them forward, and we should have done those gates much earlier than we did.

“Also, we have a siloed organization, so going beyond the boundaries of those organizations in terms of development and also sales, I think that could have been much smoother.

“And then going forward, in our own titles and in third-party titles, we do have many different windows. And we want to be able to select the right and optimal window so that we can deploy them on our own platform without cannibalization, so that we can maximize our performance in terms of title launches. That’s all I have.”

Prior to this, Sadahiko Hayakawa, senior VP for finance and investor relations, acknowledged Concord shutting down and Helldivers 2 becoming a hit. He said the company gained a “lot of experience and learned a lot from both.”

“We intend to share the lessons learned from our successes and failures across our studios, including in the areas of title development management as well as the process of continually adding expanded content and scaling the service after its release so as to strengthen our development management system.

“We intend to build on an optimum title portfolio during the current mid-range plan period that combines single-player games – which are our strengths and which have a higher predictability of becoming hits due to our proven IP – with live-service games that pursue upside while taking on a certain amount of risk upon release.”

Sony said it will release “major single-player titles” yearly after Ghost of Yōtei (which launches in 2025). It’s also making “steady progress” with new titles and improvements to its “live service game processes.” Sony has live service titles like Bungie’s Marathon and Haven Studios’ Fairgame$ in the works, but it’s yet to announce other big single-player titles. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Within a mere two weeks of launch, following disappointing sales and lukewarm critical reception, Concord was pulled offline, and everyone who bought the game was refunded. Firewalk and Sony’s position at the time was that they would put their heads together and try and figure out a different future for the game- which implied that maybe there was a future for the game. Many assumed that maybe it would return in the form of a free-to-play shooter, but really, the more you thought about it, the clearer it became that Concord was likely not going to get a second shot. Not after going down as one of the biggest and most high-profile first-party failures the games industry has ever seen.

Now, Sony has made the announcement that Firewalk Studios is shutting down, with mobile developer Neon (previously known as Savage Game Studios) also being shuttered, and it’s an absolute shame for just so many reasons. First and foremost, it’s a shame, of course, that multiple hundreds of people are losing their jobs, adding to the already several thousands of job cuts and layoffs this industry has seen over the last couple of years. It’s also a shame to see a new IP bombing this hard. Gaming, like any creative medium, desperately needs a constant influx of new ideas, so to see a major new first-party IP failing in this fashion is never great. You just know that a bunch of c-suite executives out there are going to decide based on Concord’s failure that maybe it might not be worth the risk to make big bets on completely new properties- which is the opposite of the direction we want to be headed in.

Beyond that, however, Firewalk Studios’ closure is also indicative of a much larger issue at PlayStation, and yet another glaring example of the cavalcade of poor decisions the company has made these last few years. The PS5 generation as a whole has seen Sony at its most frustrating in multiple ways. Yes, we have obviously had a number of great first-party games over the course of this generation, from Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Astro Bot, among others, but though the company has continued to deliver quality games, that has unfortunately gone hand-in-hand with disastrous mismanagement in other areas.

Sony acquired Firewalk Studios just about a year and a half ago, in April of 2023, prior to which it had already agreed to fund and publish the studio’s debut title, so clearly, it believed in Concord, or at least what it could become. Where that confidence came from, however, is a real headscratcher, because knowing what we now know of Concord, we can say with equal confidence that though it wasn’t without its own fair share of gameplay strengths, overall, it clearly wasn’t equipped for long-term success- or even short-term success, as it would turn out. No, it was a flawed $40 Overwatch clone in 2024, in a market that’s already flooded with similar live service shooters.

Banking so hard on Concord was in and of itself a mistake, then, but even more egregious is how Sony has chosen to deal with the fallout. Firewalk is being shuttered less than two years out from being acquired, hundreds of people are losing their jobs, and the game they spent years working on was allowed to remain online for just two weeks. And let’s not forget Neon Koi, the mobile studio that was acquired just a couple of years ago as part of Sony’s big mobile push- which, as per co-CEO Hermen Hulst, still remains an important part of the company’s strategy, in spite of the fact that Neon Koi is being shuttered, and its game cancelled. Looking at Concord and its fallout with Firewalk, it’s hard to think of examples of other publishers handling a rough situation with this kind of bumbling idiocy and lack of grace. Truly, PlayStation leadership has made an absolute mockery of itself.

Unsurprisingly, the conversation once again takes us back to Sony’s misguided live service ambitions. We’re barely a couple of games into those plans, and the list of failures is already long. Concord shelved, and Firewalk shuttered. The Last of Us Online cancelled, and Naughty Dog looking nowhere close to releasing a new game this generation. London Studios shuttered, and its live service game cancelled. Partnered AAA indie studio Deviation Games shuttered, before it could even announce its game. The only success Sony has seen in this arena so far has been Helldivers 2, which is more of a surprise success than one that the company worked for and planned around- and even that Sony has somehow managed to fumble with its PSN requirements on PC, illustrating just how to snap defeat from the jaws of victory.

You can, of course, understand from a financial perspective why Sony wanted other streams of revenue besides its big budget single-player titles, but Firewalk’s closure and the disastrous decision-making surrounding Concord are perfectly emblematic of how terribly the company has executed on those plans. In his internal email to PlayStation employees where he announced the shuttering of Firewalk and Neon Koi, PlayStation’s co-CEO Hermen Hulst touched on how the company will learn from the failings of Concord as it moves forward, but it’s hard to imagine this version of PlayStation having the capacity to learn more its mistakes.

This version of PlayStation is so entrenched in its idiotic vision for the future that it feels like it’s only ever going to make terrible decision after terrible decision. Like shuttering a studio that you should never have bought less than two years after buying it. Like laying off 900 people earlier in the year. Like spending over $300 million on Spider-Man 2, watching it enjoy widespread critical and commercial success, and then laying off a bunch of people at Insomniac anyway. Like investing multiple billions into Bungie, only to watch the studio’s condition go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye. Like adopting a collective policy of squeezing as much money out of your audience as possible, with increased prices for games, consoles, accessories, or subscription services. Like selling a pro console for $700 and refusing to sell it with a disc drive, or hell, even a stand.

And that’s just scratching the surface. This is the version of PlayStation we’re stuck with, and the Concord debacle is yet another stark reminder of that. Obviously, you want to hope that Sony will indeed learn from these huge and costly mistakes – and boy have these mistakes been huge and costly – but they had to make a string of mind-numbingly stupid decisions to find themselves in this position, leaving you to wonder whether they even have the capacity to know what the right path forward is.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

This is according to two sources reportedly “familiar with the agreement,” but interestingly, the amount didn’t cover Concord’s development. It also didn’t include Sony acquiring Firewalk Studios or the IP rights. While there’s a baseline for how much was invested in the game, the total is still anyone’s guess.

Concord was available for PS5 and PC, retailing for $39.99. Check out our review, where we gave it a 6 out of 10, praising the gunplay and visuals while criticizing the hero kits, lackluster content, and distinct lack of imagination. It reportedly sold about 25,000 units at launch, becoming one of Sony’s biggest first-party failures in years.

Firewalk Studios was acquired by PlayStation in April last year, and earlier this year, in August, the studio released its debut title in Concord. The multiplayer first-person shooter was, however, met with lukewarm reception and disastrous sales, and just two weeks after release, it was pulled offline, while everyone who bought the game was refunded.

In an internal email sent to employees, PlayStation’s co-CEO Hermen Hulst wrote, “Certain aspects of Concord were exceptional, but others did not land with enough players, and as a result we took the game offline. We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options.

“After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio.  I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.

“The PvP first person shooter genre is a competitive space that’s continuously evolving, and unfortunately, we did not hit our targets with this title. We will take the lessons learned from Concord and continue to advance our live service capabilities to deliver future growth in this area.”

Neon Koi, meanwhile, was acquired by PlayStation in 2022, back when the developer was still known as Savage Game Studios, as part of Sony’s efforts to expand into mobile gaming. Hulst says mobile remains an area that Sony will continue to focus on, but is now looking to do in more strategic fashion, as a result of which Neon Koi and the mobile action game it was working on are both being shut down.

“Expanding beyond PlayStation devices and crafting engaging online experiences alongside our single-player games are key focal areas for us as we evolve our revenue streams,” Hulst wrote in his email. “We need to be strategic, though, in bringing our games to new platforms and recognize when our games fall short of meeting player expectations.

“While mobile remains a priority growth area for the Studio Business, we are in the very early stage of our mobile efforts. To achieve success in this area we need to concentrate on titles that are in-line with PlayStation Studios’ pedigree and have the potential to reach more players globally.

“With this re-focused approach, Neon Koi will close, and its mobile action game will not be moving forward. I want to express my gratitude to everyone at Neon Koi for their hard work and endless passion to innovate.”

“Some” employees from both studios will be offered roles across other internal PlayStation studios, according to Hulst.

“Both decisions were given serious thought, and ultimately, we feel they are the right ones to strengthen the organization,” his email reads. “Neon Koi and Firewalk were home to many talented individuals, and we will work to find placement for some of those impacted within our global community of studios where possible.

“I am a big believer in the benefits of embracing creative experimentation and developing new IP. However, growing through sustainable financials, especially in a challenged economic environment is critical.”

So, nearly a year later after the total failure of one of those live service games, is Sony changing plans? Well, they would be wise to do so since Concord was only one of many stumbling blocks keeping the company from attaining the glory of their PS2 days. PlayStation is at their best when they don’t chase trends, and the current trend of always-online live-service is one that is obviously collapsing under its own colossal weight.

Concord was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Sony regarding its push for AAA live service trendy games. Saying that trend-chasing in today’s gaming landscape is a recipe for disaster is like calling the kettle black, and Concord was the cataclysm that finally cemented that reality for everyone to see. The reason Sony put all money on the project is they intended it to be one of their huge tent-pole titles spanning spin-offs and merchandise in Star Wars-like fashion. Well, that ambition didn’t go so well, with Concord shutting down its servers only two weeks after launch. Concord would go on to be PlayStation’s biggest gaming failure of all time.

But Concord is just the most visible failure in the AAA trend-chasing bubble. PlayStation’s initial push to develop 12 live-service games by 2025 was chopped in half to just 6 last year. What could have caused PlayStation to step back a bit on the trend-chasing train? Well, Sony’s acquisition of Bungie in 2021 wasn’t paying off as well as they’d hoped, with Destiny 2’s latest expansion The Final Shape, reportedly selling less than previous expansions. Worse yet, Bungie just had 17% of its workforce laid off earlier this year, demonstrating that Sony most likely overpaid their $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie and need to cut costs.

But Sony didn’t just waste money on Concord and Bungie; Naughty Dog’s standalone The last of Us multiplayer game was suddenly cancelled in December of 2023. Naughty Dog’s statement concerning the cancellation speaks volumes about the sustainability issues inherent in live service titles; they went on to state, “We had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.” Thankfully, Naughty Dog decided to walk the latter path, cutting their live service ambitions; hopefully Sony follows suit and makes the same decision.

Concord and TLOU Online doesn’t cover the full gamut of live-service hurdles the industry has faced recently, but they can give us some insight into why the AAA live service bubble is bursting. AAA liver-service games simply cost too much to maintain and cannot capture an audience that has already found their game of choice. The phrase, “We already have that at home,” sums up the situation well enough. Why play an imitation of the thing you like rather than the thing itself? What PlayStation needs to do is go back to their roots as an industry leader in innovative first-party experiences that cannot be had elsewhere. Why pay $40 for Concord when Overwatch 2 and Destiny 2 are vastly more feature complete, and multiplatform to boot? It’s a Sisyphean uphill battle to make a live-service game from scratch and expect the kind of audience that a longstanding game with an existing infrastructure has.

PlayStation has always been at their best at providing “prestigious” first-party games like Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon, just to name a few. Astro Bot is currently sitting as the most highly rated game of the year with a stunning 94 from critics and users alike on Metacritic. Astro Bot also sold well, ranking at number 2 in US unit sales for September 7th, only sitting behind NBA 2K25. UK sales were record-breaking too, with GamesIndustry.biz confirming that Astro Bot is the “fastest-selling original platformer IP outside of Mario in the last decade”, with 21% higher sales than Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart.

If you look at the best selling PS4 games, you’ll find an interesting trend: single-player first-party games with overwhelmingly positive consumer reception. The top ten list has nary a live-service game in sight while marque single-player experiences like Ghost of Tsushima and Marvel’s Spider-Man dominate with $10+ million in sales. Good games sell, and unique games create fresh new audiences, which is exactly what PlayStation has excelled at in the past and needs once again.

What PlayStation doesn’t need is another Concord on its hands. And it’s looking like that could be a possibility down the line with their 5 or so live-service games in development. With the success of Helldivers 2 earlier this year, it’s still tough to determine how committed Sony is to their initial live-service push. According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, Sony’s internal attitude is still very hot on delivering live-service titles; he goes on to state, “PlayStation’s live service initiative was no joke, everybody was like… it’s live service games all round”. According to Schreier, Horizon Online is Sony’s next big live-service gamble, and it’s reportedly coming out before the next Horizon single-player game (Horizon 3). Fairgame$, a heist-based extraction shooter, is another of Sony’s tent-pole online games that they’re betting big on. And then, of course, there’s Bungie’s Marathon project. We have no idea how Marathon development is going at the moment, but considering Bungie’s mass layoffs recently, it may have been slowed and restructured a bit.

Sony hasn’t made a statement amending their live-service push since the failure of Concord, and they’re still going forward with a handful of big budget projects with enthusiasm. If insider sources like Schreier are to be believed, single player experiences like Horizon 3 are being put on the backburner for live-service titles like Horizon Online and Fairgame$. The recently announced Ghost of Yōtei gives a shred of hope that Sony’s single-player strengths are still alive and well, but without much else, it’s hard to pin down what Sony is focusing on. One thing is for sure, Concord spoke to Sony’s wallet and must have at least shifted their commitment to live-service titles in some small way. Add the numerous layoffs at Bungie and the amount of staff and budget required to keep online games ongoing through the years and you have a model that is unsustainable at the rate Sony initially wanted under Jim Ryan’s leadership.

It’s likely that Sony is now aiming for balance between premium first-party single-player titles and live-service games, but until we hear an official statement, it’s all speculation. Regardless, it’s clear to anyone that the live-service market is oversaturated, and the AAA bubble has effectively burst. If a game publisher wants to gain an audience and grow, it needs to offer unique experiences that players can only get there and nowhere else. This is what their competitors have been doing with success despite significantly weaker hardware and what made PlayStation such a leader in the console space for generations. If Sony can keep producing successes like Astro Bot and last year’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, they can potentially capture some of the success they had in their PS2 days.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

As per a report by TrueTrophies – which cites gameplay sample data from over 3.1 million active PSN accounts – Until Dawn saw 28 percent fewer players on PS5 at launch than the disastrous Concord, which launched earlier this year and was on the market for just two weeks before being pulled offline and taken off sale.

In comparison, the biggest single-player launch that the PS5 has allegedly seen so far this year was The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, which had 98.5 percent more players than the Until Dawn remake at launch, the report claims.

The horror title is also available on PC, but hasn’t done too much better there either, having peaked at just over 2,000 concurrent players on Steam, making it one of Sony’s worst-performing games on the platform to date.

Critical reception for Until Dawn has been mixed, with the remake sitting at a Metacritic score of 70 after 31 reviews. Our own review of the remake was more positive. Awarding it a score of 8/10, we said, “Though it’s hard not to see the validity of criticisms over its pricing and and questions over whether it even needed to be made, the Until Dawn remake is ultimately a solid and enhanced new version of a modern horror classic.” Read the full review through here.

An Until Dawn movie is due out next year, having recently wrapped filming. Reportedly, a sequel to Until Dawn is also in development at Firesprite. Read more on that through here.