Live-service games are now a go-to for a lot of studios and Sony did not flinch when they saw Overwatch’s rising success. However, things are not going as planned at HQ if we look at the player count for Concord, Sony’s Overwatch counterpart. There could be a myriad of reasons as to why this is the case. Thankfully, we have some solid answers. So, dive with us as we discuss 5 reasons why Concord cannot get any players.
1. Concord is a Paid Parody
Let us start with the obvious reason, the pricing. Concord costs an absurd $40 for a hero shooter game that will eventually add more battle passes and skins in the future. The game confuses itself to be Helldivers 2 (review) when it is anything but. And frankly, Sony thinking that Concord would get the same response as Helldivers 2 at the same price led to this. Especially when one is a co-op shooter.
The developers should have learned from the mistakes of PUBG. If you remember, PUBG had a great player base at the beginning but that pricing situation made them have an erratic player count. Although PUBG even destroyed the barrier of all-time peak player count with over 3 million players the game was not seeing numbers reflecting regularly.
However, as soon as the game went free, it saw a surge of players on Steam. It even gets in the top 5 concurrent players regularly with more than usual players coming in during update days.
On the other hand, Overwatch also went free to play after realizing that players would not spend on a hero shooter when free games like Apex Legends or Valorant already exist. This makes me wonder if Concord should have gone free to play just to get more players in the beginning. Well, that would be up to speculations of what if… But that is not it. There are more reasons and one is there is nothing unique to the game.
2. Bland Like a Prototype Game
Yes, you heard it right. Concord is as bland as a pizza with no seasoning. Initially, when I tried the beta, I wondered if the game would add more things after the playtest was over. Well, it did not. The hero shooter aspects feel like a hero shooter. The abilities are exactly what I see in other games like Overwatch or Valorant. It is the same thing in a new pot. Moreover, there are no new game modes even. All Overwatch game modes are renamed and pasted. I wonder what took them 8 years.
On the other hand, we live in times where shooters are getting something fresh every day. The Finals brought a fun destructible experience that was not there for a long time. Shroud’s new game Spectre Divide adds the concept of a playable clone that is fresh and exciting. Apex Legends constantly adds new elements such as EVO upgrades or ability trees. Even the early development of Valve’s new game Deadlock adds more flavors to a battle arena shooter than we ever had, even pros agree.
That makes me ask the Concord developers if they really paid attention to the outside world. I can agree that they had a vision since they started making the game in 2016 but in 2024, I think for $40 we all deserve better.
3. Uninspired and Forgettable Character Design
What we also deserve is a better character design from a game that asks for such an amount from our wallet. Look, I am all about exclusivity and inclusion of diverse characters but it should be on the fair grounds. Whenever I talk about exclusivity in shooter games, I talk about Apex Legends first and how they make it possible without making things hard from the gameplay perspective.
However, in Concord, character differences seem too unnecessary and add majorly to the reasons why the game cannot get enough players. Some characters feel too oversized for a shooter game as their collision is more noticeable than the skinnier ones. It can create big disparity and lead to players not investing their time in learning the characters that are easier to shoot.
Some of the characters in Concord feel too detailed while others feel neglected in terms of design. See, I do not mind details on characters at all in a shooter game but balancing it out is important when a player spends that much money on a game. Well, that is not where it stops. Almost every single character feels like a clone of some other game or movie.
1-Off feels like a yellow version of R2D2 while Jabali seems like an absolute rip-off from Seer in Apex Legends. Even Lennox and Star Child look like they are from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Given the amount of budget and time Concord makers took, the character designs feel like a slap in the face for gamers who purchase it. But, what if the market has so many games?
4. Other Shooters Provide Better Value for Free
Yes, I think Sony misjudged the shooter’s genre and published a paid game when free games provide more value. Games like Valorant, Apex Legends, and Overwatch 2 are already making players lifelong fans. They offer fun for free which Sony might have an issue with. But it is not just about the existing games.
There are many fun games on the market in early access, alpha, or beta test. Games like Delta Force offer a 2024 version of Battlefield that seems more polished. There is Splitgate 2 where you experience Halo with portals for free in another alpha test. Spectre Divide is also in public beta test while Deadlock playtest is invite-only. Even Marvel is coming up with its own Marvel Rivals to give players an Overwatch experience with Marvel characters in December. This is also one of the main reasons why Concord cannot get any players on their side.
All these games provide you polished and unique experience even after being in such early stages. Furthermore, the fact you can try these shooters for free lets you decide if they’re worth your time at all. This by far is one of Concord’s biggest misses.
5. Video Game Fatigue
Before we end our list of reasons, we cannot forget this is the peak time for video games. We already have great games like Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2, followed up by the GOTY contender Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring Shadow of Erdtree DLC.
With Star Wars Outlaws and COD Black OPs 6 around the corner, it seems that video game fatigue has made people be selective with their pick right now. With Gamescom also revealing more future games, people are not willing to spend a dime on a hero shooter when they can play them for free on the current market.
And, these are the reasons I think why Concord cannot get any players. With the game hardly crossing 600 players on Steam, I feel it is time we move on for the good. That said, have you played Concord? Let us know in the comments below.
