Sony announced the closure of Firewalk Studios, a game developer based in Bellevue, Washington, 18 months after acquiring the company. Firewalk’s first game, Concord, a multiplayer action game for Windows and PlayStation 5, was released on August 23 but saw poor sales and low player counts, leading Sony to shut down the game’s servers after just two weeks. Sony offered refunds to players who had purchased the game and announced the permanent closure of Firewalk Studios and the German mobile developer Neon Koi due to the failure of Concord to meet expectations in the competitive PvP first-person shooter genre.
The Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Hermen Hulst, cited the continuously evolving nature of the PvP first-person shooter genre as a reason for the closure of Firewalk Studios and the end of Concord. Hulst mentioned that lessons learned from Concord would be used to advance the company’s live service capabilities for future growth in the gaming industry. It was announced that an unknown number of employees in Washington state would be laid off following the closure of Firewalk Studios. Sony has not provided further details regarding the layoffs, and the situation is still developing.
Firewalk Studios was founded in 2018 as part of ProbablyMonsters, a studio collective based in Bellevue, Washington, aimed at building a sustainable, people-first culture for video game development. ProbablyMonsters sold Firewalk to Sony in April 2023, and Firewalk revealed its debut project, Concord, a month later as part of a PlayStation Showcase livestream. Despite minimal marketing support from Sony and a price point of $39.99, Concord struggled to compete in a genre where other established games used a free-to-play business model.
Although Concord had some positive aspects, including resonating with players in certain ways, other aspects of the game and the initial launch did not meet expectations. Ryan Ellis, director at Firewalk, acknowledged this in a statement on the PlayStation blog, leading to the decision to take the game offline and explore other options to better reach players. The rapid abandonment of Concord by Sony has led to speculation among fans and analysts about what may have occurred behind the scenes in relation to the game’s failure.
The closure of Firewalk Studios is part of a larger trend of layoffs and shutdowns affecting the video game industry in recent years, with over 10,000 employees losing their jobs in 2024 alone. This trend is seen as a painful global reset following the industry’s rapid growth in 2020-2021, driven by increased consumer spending on entertainment during the COVID-19 lockdown. The closure of Firewalk Studios adds to the challenges facing the industry, with companies needing to adapt to changing consumer preferences and market conditions to remain successful in the highly competitive gaming industry.
