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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.
One Kotaku reporter has backed up the point of toxic positivity, noting they had spoken to several sources who mention a "heads in the sand" mentality learned from the senior lead's Bungie roots. When asked about the $400 million figure, they said they hadn't been able to confirm it, though it wasn't the number they had heard.
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.
The short version is that Firewalk was founded under the Probably Monsters umbrella in 2018. Over the following years, up until Firewalk was snapped up by Sony, Probably Monsters got cash injections of $18.8m in 2019, $200m in 2021, and $31.2m in 2022. While that's $250m in total and not inclusive of other income sources like loans, that figure wasn't just for Firewalk but also for other projects in the works at other studios.
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.
