Concord likely needs free-to-play shift to find success in current market of hero shooters

Sony’s hero shooter Concord likely needs to steer away from its current $40 price tag if it’s going to find much success in this current market.

There are plenty of hero shooters to choose from these days, across multiple subgenres—Overwatch 2, VALORANT, Apex Legends, and Marvel Rivals chief among them—and there’s one common theme among the selection: They’re all free-to-play.

Concord’s current offering does not justify the $40 price tag, in my opinion, especially when there are other options available to try for free. And that’s just one of several hurdles for this game to find success when it launches next month.

A quick browse of the game’s community hub on Steam shows that many, many gamers are apparently upset with the fact that the characters have their pronouns displayed on their pages and that the cast of characters is ugly. “It’s just an Overwatch clone but without the porn,” one review said.

Others say it’s “super fun when it works,” “a highly polished product and I’m honestly surprised,” and “a good foundation for what could become a great game.” Many players have said they weren’t interested in the game beforehand but are now looking forward to it after trying the beta.

But the fact is the game had a peak of just 1,124 players on Steam on its first day. And that doesn’t inspire much hope, without even factoring in the price tag and other perceived issues. Obviously, the game will have a bigger audience on PS5 to help fill out the servers, but that doesn’t change the fact there’s little hype around the title just over a month out from launch.

My personal experience with Concord’s beta was generally positive. The gameplay feels smooth, the presentation is very high quality, and the optimization feels top-notch on my rig. But honestly? There’s just not much right now that makes it stand apart from the field. It’s just OK to me, and that’s likely not good enough for longevity. And maybe that’s why it has the $40 price tag to begin with.

Spending $40 on a multiplayer-only hero shooter that you don’t know whether or not you’ll enjoy is a very, very tough ask in 2024. Gamers are harsher than ever, and I feel like the only way for the game to stick around in a market flooded with live-service titles is to either lower its price or go free-to-play.

If it’s free, there’s always the chance a player may enjoy what they’re playing, get hooked, and be compelled to spend money on in-game purchases. But right now, that $40 gate is difficult to get past for many.