Concord was a sci-fi PvP Hero Shooter developed by Firewalk Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game was announced in May 2023, and following a public beta in July 2024, it was launched on August 23, 2024 for PlayStation 5 and PC.
The game took place in the far future, where mercenaries known as "Freegunners" venture across the galaxy and compete with each other on "high-stakes jobs". The playable Freegunners were a variety of human, alien, and robot combatants, each with their own unique weapons, defenses, and abilities. Games were 5v5 affairs, with six different game modes:
- Area Control: Teams fight to control multiple zones across the map, gaining points for holding zones and racing to a target score. One round with respawn.
- Cargo Run: Teams race to grab a box of valuables, then plant it in an "extraction zone" and protect it from theft until they win. Best-of-three, one life per round.
- Clash Point: Teams fight to control a central location for a certain amount of time. Best-of-three, one life per round.
- Signal Hunt: Similar to Clash Point, but the target location moves around during the match. One round with respawn. Added after the beta.
- Takedown: A straightforward deathmatch; the first team to kill 30 enemies wins. One round with respawn. Added after the beta.
- Trophy Hunt: Similar to Takedown, but dead enemies drop "bounty cards" that must be collected to get points, and you can deny the enemy a point by grabbing a teammate's card first. One round with respawn.
The game launched with 16 playable characters and 12 maps, with promises of free post-launch content updates, which would introduce new characters, maps, game modes, and cutscenes developing an ongoing story. However, on September 3, 2024, Sony announced that the game would be shut down indefinitely on September 6 (less than two weeks after launch), citing that "aspects of the game and our initial launch didn't land the way we'd intended," due to catastrophically low sales and player count (just around 25,000 copies sold worldwide and under 700 simultaneous PC players at its peak). The game was delisted from all digital storefronts and refunds offered to those who purchased it. Concord was officially shut down on the 6th, though fan efforts subsequently began to reverse engineer the game's backend so it could continue to be played through private servers, with those efforts briefly bearing fruit in late 2025
before being taken down by Sony.
In the meantime, Sony declared that they would "explore options, including those that will better reach our players," but in October 2024, it was announced that Firewalk Studios would be shuttered and Concord permanently sunsetted. Despite this, an episode inspired by Concord featured in the video game-inspired Animated Anthology series Secret Level, titled Concord: Tale of the Implacable, still premiered in December 2024, a few short months after this announcement.
Concord contains examples of:
- An Adventurer Is You: Each of the Freegunners has one of six "Crew Bonuses," each providing its unique flat buff which remains even upon switching to a different character:
- Tacticians grant an improved reload speed.
- Rangers mitigate recoil from weapons.
- Haunts increase the player's mobility.
- Anchors increase the amount of healing received.
- Breachers reduce the cooldown of their dodges.
- Wardens grant increased weapon range.
- Anti-Magical Faction: The Guild will kill any mystics it finds. The phrase "unlicensed mystics" was used, which implies some sort of Mutant Draft Board "licensed mystics", but this was never actually mentioned. In Haymar's backstory, when her power was discovered, the Guild went straight to shooting.
- Bounty Hunter: All of the Freegunners are this by trade, with the gameplay being ostensibly built around them fighting for their payday, from fighting over the same targets to each other.
- Cassette Futurism: The game appeared to have this aesthetic in mind, depicting a bright and shiny '70s/'80s style future universe.
- Closed Circle: Kind of stretching the definition of "circle", but it's a major part of the game's backstory that "The Wilds" (star systems where the game takes place) was cut off from "The Core Worlds" (rest of the galaxy) by a Negative Space Wedgie called "The Tempest" that destroys anything within, ships and planets included. And the Tempest might be moving.
- Code of Honour: The "Freegunner Code". Stated tenets include "Crew First, Job Second", "Want a Payday? Earn It" and "Respect the Flyby Truce" (possibly referring to outer space being a Truce Zone for freegunners).
- Disaster Scavengers: The planet Scrounge is near enough to the Tempest that debris from destroyed spaceships falls there, and Scrapper clans make their living retrieving it.
- Double Jump: All but two playable characters (1-Off and Emari, both of whom are among the biggest and most durable in the game) can double-jump, with Jabali and Roka able to triple jump. Many freegunners also have access to an air-dodge to give them a burst of horizontal movement while mid-air, some a consecutive "double-dodge."
- Drop Ship: The Northstar carries one of these, unnamed.
- Friendly Enemy: It's mentioned that the Freegunners consider themselves a community, different crews are chummy and help each other out in space, but on the ground while fighting over treasure it's every crew for themselves.
- Heir Club for Men: In Bazz's backstory, leadership of the Crescent Moon has been passed down the male line for generations, and she was heir apparent until her gender transition, at which point she was passed over.
- Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: A robot becoming an AI is referred to as "sparking" and seems to be both random and controllable; Kyps was randomly sparked by an EMP pulse, and 1-Off without any particular stimulus, but Duchess' backstory mentions plans to mass-produce sparked servants.
- Lore Codex: The Galactic Guide is a map of the galaxy that lets players scroll around and read about the game's characters and planets, with new lore entries unlocked through playing the game.
- MacGuffin: The cinematic reveal trailer depicts the crew of the Northstar seizing a device called the "Blue Buddy" — a tablet-sized computer that appears to contain a sentient AI — from a rival group of bounty hunters, and in turn from a powerful organization called "The Guild." The Blue Buddy is also the key payload fought over in the Cargo Run game mode.
- No Ending: The pre-release animated shorts conclude before the crew reaches Glance to go on their mission and reckon with their rivals from the Dark Cutter.
- One Nation Under Copyright: The Guild, in what little detail was published, seems to be a company that effectively rules most planets, claims a monopoly on both "spacelane route maps" and the fuel for Faster-Than-Light Travel engines, and hunts down Freegunners with its private army.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The central plot focused on the crew of the Northstar, consisting of Lennox (a snarky and talkative alien gunslinger), Haymar (an antisocial magic-user), Star Child (a huge Proud Warrior Race Guy), 1-Off (a Gentle Giant trash collector robot), and Vale (a Friendly Sniper).
- Resignations Not Accepted: The Crescent Moon crime family from Bazz's backstory. Of course, she escaped anyway.
- Robot War: The lore mentions "Robots Wars" between a group of AI 'bots and a corporate alliance. It was ended indecisively by the eruption of the Tempest.
- Space Opera: The game's setting, featuring a menagerie of human and alien mercenaries having adventures across various planets in a mix of gritty and upbeat reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy.
- Star Scraper: The Guild's headquarters, "The Spire", is a tower that goes all the way to the edge of the atmosphere.
- Unobtanium: "Fuel Salt," which powers FTL engines and is only found on a few planets. It's a common thing for the Guild and the Freegunners to fight over.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: The Captain of the Northstar, who both runs the ship and acts as Mission Control during matches. It's unknown if the Captain is a Sapient Ship or just The Voice.