Helldivers found success because it's PVE and a relatively small studio. Many other GaaS games are the complete opposite of that.

I haven't read through all this, but I think its a combination of a bunch of factors that just had a bunch of ill-will focused on this game.

Sony has had a lack of 1st party studio releases, specifically single player story driven content they are known for. This got released during a time when (before astrobot was announced) the only announced single player game in sony's portfolio for PS5 was Wolverine, which is, like, a decade away. I think this pissed off a lot of Sony fans that felt betrayed by the company for GAAS.

Factions got cancelled. A lot of people were really looking forward to that, more than any other "online" game Sony had planned. In a binary world, it was Factions vs. Concord. Again, people pissed off.

Whether you/we agree with it or not, it did have...progressive (call it woke if you want) things inserted. Each character has their pronouns listed (he/him, she/her, they/them, undecided). Character designs were also less of their target audience. The lead character designer also said some very...ummm...unflattering(?) things about white males. I would say at least 30% of the gaming community is turned off by these things.

I'm not saying any of these arguments hold water, but they all contributed to the hatred towards Concord. They basically kept chopping their audience in half until it was really small, then threw it into an overcrowded genre of game where most only play "one" of the choices.

I feel bad for the staff, they put a lot of hard work in. That said, even as a Sony fan, this is not what I want, I am not interested in it whatsoever, and I hope they pivot away from games like this.

Yeah but it's still a GaaS so Lurker is correct that we need to stop trying to blame everything on GaaS and I was pointing out that Sony's other GaaS effort, Helldivers 2, has been a huge success, so anyone thinking this will change Sony's course is in for a rude awakening and anyone saying Sony's GaaS efforts have been a complete failure are wrong too.

Your point about Helldivers is a point I've made over the course of the thread too, that all GaaS aren't just "PVP Pew Pew" and I used Sea of Thieves as a reference of a GaaS title that is unique, with no real direct competition in its area and a huge success. Concord on the other hand directly competes with more than a few massive hero-shooters, as a paid title versus F2P titles, it always had an uphill battle.

You can find success in that, it's just a lot harder, but I am also combating the idea that all GaaS are the same, that all GaaS suck. I think it's fine for Sony to try to break into that area of the market but after they achieve that I think they should focus the rest of their GaaS into filling an untapped market, unique fun ideas, instead of spending them all chasing after the big guys. Helldivers 2 is exactly one of those "unique, fun ideas" and not chasing after anyone else's market, Imo, I can't think of anything that Helldivers 2 directly competes with in the same sense of Concord directly competing with juggernauts like Overwatch and Valorant.

Never heard of this game. I guess this is an additional reason as to why Jim Ryan is gone.

What a sad generation of gaming for Sony!

Yeah, GaaS can actually be good when done right. An overwhelming number of them are bad though. Like you were saying earlier, 9/10 GaaS games can fail if game 10 prints money all day.

Minor detail, Titanfall 2 wasn't really a flop and its still surprisingly active. It just didn't do the numbers EA wanted and Apex replaced it. So EA and Respawn are good. That's really a success story overall.

Concord is DOA. Its a game with virtually no audience.

A game like this really needs have cool/sexy/badass characters, whereas the character design in Concord is some of the worst I've ever seen

Nobody wants to play as these guys

There has to be some sort of laundering going on here.  It is unacceptable that they genuinely believed "people are desperate for THIS" in their games. No shot they didn't know this would crash.  I can't fathom that a Sony is this incompetent.  It's unbelievable.

This is more an indictment of just how sorry a state gaming is in right now.

That a game needs to confirm to some set standard, outside of gameplay fun factor, to be seen as ok enough to play only continues to contribute to the homogenisation of games.

 My mom had that coat in the 80s but never wore dishwashing gloves with it or ski goggles.