Summary
A commemorative developer plaque from the disavowed PlayStation live-service gameConcordrecently surfaced in an online auction for Goodwill. These plaques are believed to have been given only to developers who worked onConcord, and it appears one of them may have wanted to get rid of theirs.
Developed by now-defunct Firewalk Studios,Concordwas a live-service hero shooter that launched in August 2024 to an extremely soft reception. Critics were lukewarm about the game, and players on PS5 and PC really didn’t seem to care, asConcordonly managed to muster up 697 concurrent Steam playersat its peak. ConsideringConcordwas reportedly considered the “future of PlayStation” internally and cost around $400 million to develop, it was an unprecedented failure. Sony pulledConcordoffline two weeks after launch, issued refunds, and ultimately chose to keep things that way.
Not long afterConcord’s physical copies were found listed for ridiculous prices on eBay, a former player made an interesting discovery on another online auction platform. Over on theConcordsubreddit, user andregurov recently revealed that they found a plaque that was presented to Chelsea Grace - ostensibly a former Outsourcing and Co-dev lead at Firewalk Studios - to commemorate the launch of the game. This plaque includes a framed physical disc and cover art forConcord, and wasup for grabs at a Goodwill online auction, which appears to have now ended.
Concord Fan Finds Rare Developer Plaque on Goodwill
While the exact origin of how theConcordplaque ended up on Goodwill’s site remains unknown, speculation points to either a donation or resale by someone connected to Grace - or potentially even from themselves. The bidding reportedly exceeded $2,500 at one point, which isn’t too surprising given that the plaque is a one-of-a-kind collectible. In the comment section of andregurov’s Reddit post, a lot ofConcordfansexpressed amusement that such a rare item for a failed game would end up in a Goodwill auction, while others saw it as a unique relic of a high-budget project that fizzled out almost instantly.
WhileConcordis now firmly in the rearview mirror, Sony’s live-service efforts haven’t seen much fortune since then. Most recently, the founder of PlayStation first-party team Haven Studios - Jade Raymond - exited the studio, withgameplay reports of the team’s debut projectFairgamesnot looking that hot either. Moreover, Bungie’s upcomingMarathonwas also found to have lifted art assets from an independent artist, which incited quite a lot of uproar among fans.
