Are Concord Losses Driving Up the PS5 Price?
Concord’s failure may have ramifications for gamers who aren’t even playing the game (which is almost all of them), and it already has in Japan, or so many are assuming. The first-person shooter has been a disaster for Sony, whose in-house studio, Firewalk Studios, developed Concord; according to an unconfirmed (but entirely believable) report courtesy of Mark Kern, it’s expected to lose Sony close to $200 million, and probably only that little because it cost $150 million to make, which is surprising. Concord’s rollout was so bad that gamers reported having to wait up to eight minutes to play on Monday because there weren’t enough players to pair them all up right away. The numbers are embarrassing for Sony, with the game having 70% fewer peak concurrent players than the early access open beta test, which had pretty lousy numbers to begin with. Unsurprisingly, nobody wanted to play this silly-looking game that focused on diversity and social messaging over being a good shooter.
F*ck around and find out.
Sony said to be increasing PS5 prices to make up for 200M Concord loss. pic.twitter.com/RrMYFsOXUe
— Grummz (@Grummz) August 28, 2024
But even if you didn’t play Concord, you may have to pay for it. Recently, Sony announced that prices for the PlayStation 5 and “related peripherals” will go up in Japan, with the console set to cost about $90 more than it does now starting September 2, 2024. Sony cites “recent changes in the global economic situation and other severe external environments,” but according to FandomWire, many gamers suspect the company’s losses on Concord are at least a contributing factor. That’s a reasonable take, as Concord is a Sony-produced game that took them eight years to make (it’s a bit surprising that it only cost $150 million under those circumstances, considering how expensive video games are to develop nowadays), and they’re likely looking to make at least some of that back. That $200 million figure, accurate or not, is reminding people of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which cost Warner Bros. that amount, according to a report from an earnings call. That debacle may well have gotten developer Rocksteady Studios shut down; will Firewalk Studios be far behind?
Time will tell on that score, but gamers are more concerned about the PlayStation 5 price, and rightfully so. The price hike is only in Japan for now, but it’s not hard to imagine it coming to other regions. The PS5 has been expensive since its launch, and it has come down very little, if at all, breaking the pattern of Sony’s other PlayStation systems. It has even gone up a few times, with this being Japan’s second price increase this year alone. I did a quick check on Google, and the PS5 is still the same price it’s always been (as far as I remember) in America: $499.99; at Best Buy and PC Richard, it’s $449.99, but there’s been no significant price drop, as is usually expected for a system that’s almost four years old. FandomWire also says that gamers point out that there aren’t all that many games available for the PS5, which not only doesn’t justify the price remaining so high but likely dissuades a lot of people from spending so much money on a new console.
It’s certainly done so for me. I’m a PlayStation guy (in terms of modern gaming), but I haven’t bought the PS5 yet because I’m waiting for the price to go down; I don’t play enough to justify spending that amount of money when I still get great use out of my PS4. And I’m not someone who typically needs to play a game right away, so waiting doesn’t bother me, and there are plenty of older games I’ve never tried that I can play in the meantime. But I’m starting to wonder if it’ll ever become a better deal, and there are some games that are either out now or on the horizon that I’d like to play at some point. In terms of the PS5 price and producing off-putting games like Concord, there’s got to be a breaking point for Sony; those price increases could end up costing them more than their boondoggle of a game will in the long run.
Let us know what you think of Concord or the PS5 prices in the comments!
Comments (4)
Yeah, I saw people talking about that as well. America is doing it too, apparently. They’re desperate to get people to accept this.
Madam Savvy and others talked about how with Dustborn, taxpayer money from the EU went into funding it. If tax money is going to fund flops and bombs in the form of woke games, and that is what is driving the prices up, then it is a teachable moment about how players are punished for the poor woke corporate decisions at the corporate business level and then, you see it in the political arena as well where citizens are punished and it costs them, the poor decisions of managers.