Sony’s Online Shooter ‘Concord’ Struggles on Steam Despite Some Positive Reviews in Beta Stage

The cross-platform multiplayer shooter, Concord, is currently struggling on Steam. The game, which recently entered beta testing, has so far peaked at a player count of 2,363, based on Steam DB, with a current number of 1,572 players. Despite the positive feedback from players about some features of the game during the beta discussions, the survival of such games heavily depends on player counts.

With the game being Sony’s latest foray into live service games, the disappointing player numbers are concerning, especially in a genre where the player base is crucial. Despite the lacklustre performance on PC, we cannot determine the game’s performance on PlayStation, as these numbers are unavailable. It is possible Concord might be doing well on PlayStation. However, it seems Sony has failed to attract the PC audience. Many players have suggested that Concord should reconsider its proposed $40 price tag and consider launching it as a Free-to-Play (F2P) title instead.

The reason for the low performance levels could be because players might not be looking for another hero shooter similar to Overwatch, unless it brings something completely unique to the table. Other potential turn-offs could come from non-game related factors.

For starters, the company decided to place the beta “Request Access” button below the two Pre-Purchase buttons for the game. Before players can see any info on the beta – which still indicates that players will be “notified when the developer is ready for more participants” rather than stating the game is downloadable now – they encounter two price tags.

Secondly, there’s a warning at the top of the page stating that a PlayStation Network Account is required to play Concord. This is a turn-off for many PC players who do not want the hassle of logging in through their PSN account to play a game on Steam. There are some PC gamers who do not even own a PSN account. Despite the game being published by PlayStation Publishing, this requirement doesn’t enhance its potential to attract PC gamers. For the sake of the developers, we hope it is doing better on the console.