Sony shuts down Harmony developer Firewalk Studios

On August 23, Sony launched the team-based hero shooter Concord and simply 10 days later it shut it down. The sport struggled to draw gamers, as demand and curiosity in hero shooters dwindled. On Steam, the sport by no means hit greater than 700 gamers, in accordance with SteamDB.

The builders shut down the sport on September sixth saying it “didn’t land as we might supposed.” Refunds had been issued to gamers who bought the $40 sport on PC and PlayStation 5.

In an inner e-mail launched in the present day, it was introduced that Sony has determined to completely shutter Firewalk Studios, the sport’s developer, successfully killing Harmony endlessly.

Harmony is formally no extra

Sadly, the writing was on the wall

Sony/Pocket-Lint

The internal email Sony posted was from Hermen Hulst, CEO of PlayStation Interactive. The letter introduced the closure of Firewalk Studios, the developer of Harmony, and Neon Koi, one in all Sony’s cellular sport studios.

“We’ve spent appreciable time these previous few months exploring all our choices,” says Hulst within the internal email. “After a lot thought, now we have decided one of the best path ahead is to completely sundown the sport and shut the studio. I need to thank all of Firewalk for his or her craftsmanship, artistic spirit and dedication.”

Neon Koi was a cellular sport improvement studio supposedly engaged on an AAA cellular motion sport. Hulst says the cellular sport house stays a precedence, however it’s refocusing its strategy to be extra consistent with “PlayStation Studios’ pedigree” to succeed in extra gamers globally.

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Over 200 individuals will lose their jobs on account of the closures

That is yet one more blow for the battered video video games business

Sony

Hulst says Sony will work to assist discover alternative work at its different studios for these impacted by each studio’s closures, however, sadly, it looks as if some builders at each studios will lose their jobs. In line with Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, 210 individuals shall be shedding their jobs, with over 170 coming from Firewalk Studios.

The online game business has suffered enormous layoffs this yr already. In Could, Microsoft announced the closure of three of its studios, and attributed the shutdowns to “reprioritization of titles and sources.” The business continues to be on a slippery slope.

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