Concord reportedly cost £300m to make amid a culture of “toxic positivity”

PlayStation’s delisted shooter Concord reportedly cost £300m ($400m) to develop.

PlayStation podcast Sacred Symbols said it spoke to someone “who worked on Concord” who revealed the development cycle was “so much worse than you think” and full of “toxic positivity”, which meant critical feedback was ignored.

The podcast host also alleges that Concord was “internally referred to as ‘The future of PlayStation’ with Star Wars-like potential”.

The “toxic positivity” claim has been further backed up by Kotaku.

“I can corroborate the part about toxic positivity,” Kotaku’s senior reporter said on X/Twitter. “Some sources I’ve spoken with blamed a head-in-the-sand mentality carried over from the studio’s Bungie roots.

“A sense the game would come together because the team was too good to fail.”

The reporter could not, however, corroborate the $400m sum, saying it is “not the number I’ve heard”.

Some developers familiar with PlayStation similarly dispute the $400m figure. Others suggest the sum likely includes the acquisition cost of buying Firewalk.

Concord was removed from sale this month, just two weeks after its launch on PS5 and PC. Game director Ryan Ellis admitted that “while many qualities of the experience resonated with players, [the team] also recognise that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended.”

Sony then issued refunds to all players.

Within days of Concord being pulled offline, Ellis reportedly stepped down, leaving the team at Firewalk Studios in limbo.