Sony Interactive Entertainment’s President, Hiroki Totoki, shared insights this Friday (8) about the lessons learned from the launch of Concord — a multiplayer game that faced a surprising setback with its servers shut down and sales halted just 11 days after release.
Totoki acknowledged that Sony is still in the process of understanding the dynamics of games-as-a-service (GaaS), a model that focuses on long-term player engagement and continuous content updates. He emphasized that, despite the early challenges, the experience has provided valuable learnings about this market and its player base.
“Currently we are still in the learning process. And basically, especially with new properties, we don’t know what results they will have until we actually try,” says the executive.
For Sony, some mistakes were made during the process and they have already identified where they failed with Concord.
“For us, in our reflection, we probably needed much more, including user testing and an internal evaluation, as well as adequate time to work on each one. We needed to bring them forward and we should have done it much sooner than we did”, informs Totoki.
Hiroki Totoki believes that Concord’s release date was not one of the game’s main problems, revealing that there is an entire study by Sony before releasing and bringing its titles to the public.
“In our own games and in partner titles, we have many windows to work with. We want to be able to select the right and optimized one, so that we can make them available on our own platform without cannibalization, thus maximizing their launch performance.”
Sony compares Concord to Helldivers 2
Sony’s Vice President of Financial and Investor Relations, Sadahiko Hayakawa, recently discussed the contrasting performance of *Concord* and *Helldivers 2*. Hayakawa highlighted that while both titles had different outcomes, they offered crucial insights that are helping Sony refine its approach to live-service games.
Hayakawa noted that Concord’s swift closure was a wake-up call for the company, shedding light on the unpredictable nature of the games-as-a-service (GaaS) market and the need for a deeper understanding of player expectations. In contrast, *Helldivers 2* demonstrated a more positive reception, showcasing the importance of a strong launch strategy and community engagement.
“Both releases have been significant learning experiences,” Hayakawa stated. He emphasized that these experiences are shaping Sony’s future plans, especially as the company aims to expand its GaaS portfolio and deliver more consistent and engaging multiplayer experiences.
“We launched two games as a service in 2024. Helldivers 2 was a huge success. Concord was eventually cancelled. We gained a lot of experience and learned from both,” reveals Hayakawa.
The executive also guarantees that Sony will share everything with other developers working on internal games, so that new errors are avoided in the future.
“We want to share the lessons we’ve learned from our successes and failures with our studios, including in the areas of title development management as well as the process of continually adding expansive content and how to scale the service post-launch, reinforcing our content management system. development”.
 about the lessons learned from the launch of Concord){kind=link}