Concord dev reflects on the last 8 years of development, 'We don't get a lot of launch days in our careers'
We've been waiting for Concord's release for some time now, but apparently not as long as the Concord devs, as lead character designer Jon Weisnewski reveals that the hero shooter had been in development for "around eight years" and that he's been around for five of them.
"Today Firewalk Studios launched [Concord]," Weisnewski says. "The game has been in development for around eight years, and I've been there for almost five of them. We don't get a lot of launch days in our careers, so today is special for a ton of reasons. Oblige me some good vibes today."
Concord is taking a slightly different approach to the hero shooter. Instead of having a battle pass, players will pay upfront to have access to everything in the game, skins and all, for free. It's an interesting gamble to take, especially when there are so many options for hero shooters that players can get for free. But this risk is founded on trust.
"Obviously, it's a group effort, and having a seat at the table with others who inspire you and push you to do your best is a tremendous privilege," Weisnewski continues. "That trust gave the game so much identity. Concord has so much humanity and depth to it. I really hope people give it a shot. Insanely proud of the game, we're strapped in and ready to push it for years to come."
From what we've seen of the hero shooter so far, it seems promising. PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park played seven hours of it during the closed beta and came away with some reserved excitement: "Concord's guns feel tremendous across the board (especially Lennox's revolvers). Every hero I've played has a fun hook I don't instantly recognize from other games."
Although a lot of prospective players on PC seem rather disinterested in Sony's hero shooter, who can blame them? The competition is tough. Players have even pointed out that the internet has already decided that this is a flop. "If people latch onto a game because [gamers] all say it's a huge success, everyone will act and speak of it like it is (despite flaws it may have)," one player points out. "Unfortunately, Concord ended up on the opposite end of that, and that's because of how they marketed the game, in my opinion. The internet has decided this is a bad game and wants it to fail."
While Concord has the potential to do well on console, PC players have instead looked elsewhere to get their new hero shooter fix. A good few players have really taken to Marvel Rivals. The closed beta was, by and large, a success, with players scrambling to get in, even if our online editor Fraser Brown did think that it was "aggressively bad."
Concord will be released tomorrow for $40 / £35, although folks who prepurchased it have already been playing for the last couple of days. It will include six modes, 12 maps, and 16 characters. The roster will be expanded in October, when Season 1 begins, and again in January and April for consecutive seasons.