A commemorative plaque celebrating the release of Sony's beleaguered shooter Concord is up for auction on a goodwill online store with bids of over $3,000.
The plaque, given to "funding Freegunner, Northstar Crew" Chelsea Grace, celebrates the "worldwide Concord launch" on August 23, 2024. Grace was reportedly credited as outsourcing and co-dev lead, although it's unclear if she has personally donated this plaque, or if it was somehow lost and donated when PlayStation shut down developer Firewalk Studios towards the end of last year.
Concord, a live service hero shooter from Sony-owned Firewalk Studios, has gone down as one of the biggest flops in PlayStation history. Amid disastrously low player numbers, Sony pulled Concord offline just two weeks after launch. One estimate suggested it only sold around 25,000 copies. At the time, we awarded Concord a 7 in our review, writing: "Concord isn’t the most innovative or content-heavy hero shooter you could play, but with such fantastic competitive gameplay, 16 compelling characters to master, and 12 well-designed maps, it’s got the makings of something that could go the distance in the months and years to come."
If you're thinking a plaque like this could be worth something for collectors and fans alike, you're not wrong. So far, it's attracted dozens of bids and is, at the time of writing, sitting on an asking price of $3,002 (thanks, Dexerto). The money will go to Goodwill, which helps people improve their lives by assisting them to find jobs and grow their careers. So far, it's served more than 25 million people.
Tim Miller, the chief creator of Amazon’s upcoming Prime Video animated anthology Secret Level, spoke out for the first time on Concord's closure last November, saying: "I honestly don’t understand why it didn’t work. I know that they were trying to do the best they could, and they were a talented group of artists, so I feel terrible for that.”
It has proved a costly failure for Sony. Concord's initial development deal was around $200 million but sources familiar with the agreement say the $200 million was not enough to fund Concord's entire development, nor did it include the purchase of the Concord IP rights or Firewalk itself. It's thought ProbablyMonsters — Firewalk's original parent company — raised $200 million in 2021.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
