Claims that Concord cost $400 million are inaccurate, according to fan analysis that claims Sony's ill-fated hero-shooter was "a $150 million game failure"

Concord
(Image credit: Firewalk)

A claim that Concord cost $400 million to create spread far and wide across the internet the other week, though many are now increasingly questioning how that's possible.

Last week, a widely covered report citing a source claiming to have worked on Concord said that internal optimism at developer Firewalk Studios led some to believe the hero shooter would be the "Future of PlayStation" and that a culture of "toxic positivity" stopped any negative feedback dead in its tracks. The main kicker, though, was that the claim that the whole thing cost $400 million to make.

That sentiment lines up with the mood of other journalists, with one saying you only have to look at Firewalk's former owner, Probably Monsters, and its funding endeavors to get a sense of just how out there the figure is.

Well, now someone has looked at those numbers and has a sense of just how out there that $400 million figure is. Detective Seeds Platinums has a wall of analysis on Twitter if you fancy reading further. The takeaway is that Concord "is a $100- $150 million game failure," not a $400 million game failure, which likely still stings a little, but not as much.

It isn't really known how much Sony paid Probably Monsters when snapping up Firewalk in 2023, nor how much it spent getting Concord out the door. You've also got costs like marketing and outsourcing to consider. Still, their point isn't to uncover just how much Concord took to make but to provide a perspective on how much would have to be spent elsewhere to reach that $400 million. Splitting Probably Monster's funding pot among its studios means Firewalk probably got $80m towards making Concord, leaving a lot to be accounted for.

Regardless, the main question moving forward is how much Sony plans to spend on Concord now. The hero shooter has been yanked offline, while those who did buy in have been refunded. The game's director has also stepped down, while plenty at the studio wait to see what's next. The answer will be answered in time.

"Thank you team, we made something awesome" - Concord developers mourn the failed FPS that PlayStation pulled the plug on after just 14 days.

Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.