Sony shuts down two game studios including the one that developed Concord

Sony has had quite an interesting year with its PlayStation gaming division. Among the highlights are the launch of the PS5 Pro (available to pre-order on Amazon for $699) which will be available to buy next month, and the launch of Astro Bot, a first-party game for the PS5. However, there have also been some misses, with the biggest one being Concord, a PvP first person shooter which was badly received it had to be taken offline just a few weeks after it launched.

Now, Sony is taking an even more drastic decision as it has announced that it is shutting down Firewalk Studios which developed Concord. It has also decided to permanently sunset the game after much consideration.

Concord was Firewalk's debut game and it's sad to learn that people have lost their jobs over the failure of said game without getting a second chance. While Sony didn't explicitly say, the decision to shut down the studio may have been taken based on the huge sum of money reportedly expended on the development of the game.

In addition to Firewalk Studios, Sony has also announced that it is shutting down Neon Koi (formerly Savage Game Studios) which it acquired in August 2022. Neon Koi was developing an AAA mobile live service action game for Sony, but has now been shut down before it could even release its first game. The mobile action game will also not see the light of day.

Despite the shut down of the game studio, Sony said in its press release that mobile is still a priority growth area for it. However, it believes the way to achieve success is by concentrating on titles that are in-line with PlayStation Studio's pedigree and that can reach more players globally.

Following this official announcement, there will probably be more details in the coming weeks about what really went down with Concord, Firewalk, and Neon Koi.