Culture Killed Concord

Concord failed because the culture of the studio made them unable or unwilling to see and fix its problems. Sadly, reality-driven game development isn't a new story and confounds many game developers.The Overwatch model was a success, but gamers evolved, and Concord needed to evolve with them. We faced similar issues with Vanguard, a game that aspired to compete with World of Warcraft. I also discuss Gotham City Impostors, which faced challenges with its characters and pricing.

[@Tommy9834]

This reminds me of a story I heard growing up. There was once an emperor who waged war on a distant land. Every day, he got an update from the front lines, informing him of victory. He got reports of victory after victory until the enemy army was at his gates.

[@Felled-angel]

@@Tommy9834 this actually happened during the Mongols campaign in China the capital of Xi Xia, Yinchuan if I'm not mistaken in 1209

[@greasy8394]

Sounds like Hitler vs Russia to me lol

[@nullpoint3346]

That's practically Ancient Egyptian History, minus the gates part. They only wrote down victories, but they got closer and closer to places of importance.

[@markdsm-5157]

i think you're seeing this wrong. More like the emperor ignored reports from the front lines because he thought his goals were righteous and his strategy infallible until the enemy army was at his gates. Prioritizing agenda over it's customers.

[@Veylon]

Was the emperor Hirohito by chance?

[@Gusttafa]

They forget that buying game is not duty.

[@laurafryer6321]

Yes! Games only exist by the grace of gamers.

[@agps4418]

@@laurafryer6321 that's actually a profound thing to say!

[@thatguyfaiq7161]

Of course. We buy it to have fun, not to fill executives pockets

[@elgusaniiiodeljuego6823]

From a certain point of view, it may be already. We need to keep an eye on where our taxes go...

[@maxog90]

​@@laurafryer6321 Game has a product,no customer,no product.

[@dragonfalcon8474]

Some of the devs saw their playerbase as "talentless freaks". Not surprised Concord failed. Sounds like it deserved to.

[@razorback0z]

That was the most accurate reveal of the issue. Right there.

[@StudioUAC]

why do they think it's cool to insult your potential customers?!

[@SHMidlerPlays]

@@StudioUACwho knows

[@miriamkapeller6754]

@@StudioUAC For me, the hypocrisy is far worse than the insult. How little self-awareness does someone need to have to call someone else talentless when they have just released one of the worst games in history?

[@dragonfalcon8474]

@@miriamkapeller6754 So true, oh the irony.

[@yezki8]

8 years, 8 YEARS Not a single one of those dev said "hey maybe this design is bad". And even if there is, not a singe one listen For 8 years

[@trip9845]

As Miss Fryer said 3:17 3:40

[@davyjones5361]

Even worse, they loved their design

[@gortonsfisherman4622]

I'm sure there were some dissenting voices, but they were either pushed out or ignored and eventually left the company.

[@jorgeporras9262]

There were some older character designs floating around and they looked amazing. The ugly character designs were done on purpose and probably forced by some manager position obsessed with the concept of breaking stereotypes.

[@peters4115]

They just Yas Queeeen each other while taking breaks and mental health breaks 😂

[@stefanjoksa]

"I went through parts of my life where the last person that I wanted to play was me in a video game". This phrase is something that so many western companies don't understand today. They keep on trying to push identity and idea of people being able to identify with a character based on their looks. It's very superficial thing to identify with and I always say that it doesn't matter with whom you identify with, what's more important is whom you empathize with, who's perspective and story you can understand and fall in love with.

[@devxved]

I've tried to make myself in a game only a handful of times. And every time i do and get it right, i laugh and hit recreate character.

[@stefanjoksa]

@@devxved every time I've mafe myself I played for couple of hours, didn't like the way my character looked and chose a default character xD

[@SeraphsWitness]

It strikes me as narcissistic whenever these goons complain, "I never see anyone that looks like me in games". Well, who cares? Why the hell do you need a character to LOOK like you? I don't care if a character is a white male. It means less than nothing to me.

[@LumaTo]

IDK. I don't necessarily want me myself in the game, but aspects of myself in them. Thankfully there are more and more games where Native American characters are able to be played, and character creators have presets that match at least one archetype or two that I can tweak. I appreciate the option, and the variety. It just won't excuse a bad game or one with bland character design.

[@SeraphsWitness]

@@LumaTo characteristics maybe, but physical attributes? I've never once wanted a character to look like me in any way. My favorite game growing up was tomb raider. Couldn't be more different than me.

[@hermitcard4494]

Consider this: even knowing nothing about the culture wars, wokeness, far right, gamergate, whatever, the rest of the world outside USA *didnt felt any curiosity over this game to give it a chance.* Meaning these designs and presentation was naturally repellent for every gamer worldwide. Same with Dustborn.

[@charlesatanasio]

I mean... the characters all look like they've been wearing those shirts for two days.

[@destyrian]

Errrrr you realise this crap is world wide and not just contained within the USA, don't you?

[@gownerjones]

@@destyrian It is really not. Especially not in the largest video game markets, namely China.

[@Marcara081]

@@gownerjones Ha ha ha oh man, wait until you research it. China funds ESG to the tune of trillions IN OTHER COUNTRIES. That's simultaneously why it's not in China AND so prevalent everywhere else. They see it as culture-rot and have exported it to their enemies.

[@oscarsalas1]

@@destyrian as a Costarrican I can confirm this DEI/Woke stuff is coming from the US mostly, TV shows, games, movies etc. I mean it's everywhere but not that hardcore as the stuff coming from the US. A friend of mine living in Long Island showed me a math exam of her 3rd grade daughter and every single math problem and question were about gay/trans stuff, that's WILD and unthinkable down here in south america.

[@georgesmith5201]

Gamers impress me. There are so many people who play video games, but their ability to be utterly disinterested in something is unmatched. Not even 1,000 people played that game.

[@SWOTHDRA]

W for us

[@therealspoon69]

@@SWOTHDRA ubisoft is also down 80% the last five years so theres still hope. and phil spencers empire of blue haired homos is also crumbling.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

And they are also arbiters of what's actually good based on player count and revenue, which is why obviously only games like Genshin and Fortnite are good.

[@eduardomartin8510]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 The salt, I can taste it. Yummy.

[@XDHJ7]

​@@eduardomartin8510 bro its culd copum

[@ysiadpir1423]

Building anything inside an echo chamber is risky.

[@Barni2212]

Especially when that echo chamber caters to the 0.01% of the audience.

[@Sam-uz4iy]

its mostly risky when they have a budget for the mass market but their echo chamber is tiny.

[@beefgoat80]

They're having trouble swallowing the fact that _they_ are the vocal minority, not the other way around. 🤷

[@mrman6035]

Specifically discord being that echo chamber.

[@mainstreetsaint36]

If by "Echo Chamber" you mean trying to copy Overwatch, and doing it poorly, then yeah "Echo Chamber."

[@spicysealion-et8kf]

In an age where Genshin Impact makes billions, they thought these designs could work.

[@ArtUniverse]

This is what happens when the target audience of your game are your investors and shareholders.

[@SeraphsWitness]

This was not some failure of capitalism, comrade. You can't spin it that way.

[@ArtUniverse]

@@SeraphsWitness Funny that you say that because I'm as right wing as it gets. It doesn't take a comrade to point out that they had no idea who the game was being made for.

[@SeraphsWitness]

@@ArtUniverse Of course not. But to blame that on investors and shareholders is bizarre, when it's the developers who are so far left that they can't tell Ayn Rand from Tucker Carlson.

[@Dumpty-e5y]

Culture war got people so confused they throwing stray punches now I see lol. Those damn woke venture capitalists and investment firms gonna turn our video games gay.

[@SeraphsWitness]

@@Dumpty-e5y nothing to do with capitalists. The opposite.

[@TheZero696]

They totally hit the mark on grabbing their target "modern audience", all 660+ of them.

[@nullpoint3346]

"+"?

[@Mr.Blob007]

@@nullpoint3346 get it, because lgbtqa+ has a ‘plus’ sign in it

[@pleaseenteranamelol711]

@@nullpoint3346 AKA 661 perhaps 663

[@4ph1-c]

@@nullpoint3346 ps5 players

[@hulkkrogan420]

I own a PS5...had barely any players on PS5 either.

[@Xaito]

Modern game devs: "We've made a game we like" Investors: "Did you make a game, gamers like?" Modern game devs: "Gamers?"

[@laurafryer6321]

LOL! Thank you for watching and for commenting!

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Gamers: we want devs who are really passionate about what they do!!! Devs: hey we made this with passion Gamers: wait no not like that

[@OdaSwifteye]

​@@mechanicalmonk2020 Putting words into people's mouth's eh? No! Gamers want games that are fun.

[@DruuzilTechGames]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 Putting Communist politics into a game isn't passion, it's propaganda.

[@GBNationalist]

@@mechanicalmonk2020What an amoeba. 🤦‍♂️😂

[@Hiro2219]

I'm not a video-game dev, but I'm a technical architect in software dev, and so many of your insights are 100% applicable in here too, if senior members aren't heard they'll either tune out and just do what's asked of them without truly contributing or they'll just quit. Communication really is so, so key on teams.

[@laurafryer6321]

Great comment! I agree! Definitely true with all software development. Thanks for watching.

[@1kreature]

This is actually true for hardware development too. Asking "Have we thought about this..." or "Are we taking a shortcut here?" and being told one is just being negative also leads to hardware engineers finding other work. "Critical design review" is the name of the meeting, and yet one can no longer ask critical questions? I think this video is the most insightful I have ever seen about issues in modern game development or even development in general.

[@laurafryer6321]

Great point! With hardware it's worse since changes take weeks or months versus minutes. Thank you for stopping by.

[@HelloHelloe]

@@laurafryer6321 Subscribed! Amazing takes and great insight!

[@unpronouncable2442]

0:20 you are missing one more option. They could also not see the issues as issues and be completely delusional in thinking that those are selling points.

[@Phnxsmv]

The problem is that when you live in your own bubble, you are creating something for people who live in that same bubble. And when you fail because everyone else does not live in your bubble and you still refuse to leave your own bubble, it is no wonder you will want to quit your job and never work in that same job again.

[@fc-vml]

We become more and more connected globally and nevertheless more and more isolated. Quite a societal oxymoron...

[@SeriouslyTechStuff]

Similar thing happened with Anthem from Bioware. They refused to look at Destiny for what it was doing right and told staff to not play it or even speak of it. So strange.

[@laurafryer6321]

Good point about Anthem! It's crazy that they weren't allowed to speak of it. Thanks for stopping by!

[@Sam-uz4iy]

Anthem wasn't even the first project to have communication issues from Bioware, Mass Effect: Andromeda preceding it was a buggy mess. There's a culture problem going on there too. Weird how many NA companies are suffering from this in recent years.

[@SeriouslyTechStuff]

@@laurafryer6321 Thanks for making such great videos.

[@KuroiNeko05]

There's multiple reasons for that, like not wanting to be accused of being a Destiny ripoff, Anthem developers hating Destiny and/or their devs, or avoiding any influences from similar genres so that the project is 100% their vision so they feel vindicated that it's this vision that is the reason for the games success.

[@RafitoOoO]

@@Sam-uz4iy soon Bioware will cease to exist. Dragon Age the Wokeguard will fail hard and EA will just axe the studio.

[@kowaikokoro]

turns out calling your potential customers ''talentless freaks'' is bad for business.

[@emikochan13]

i doubt many people actually saw that. the drama was not the reason the game failed.

[@earlyriser03]

@@emikochan13this. It’s a comical take that is firmly rooted in one being perpetually online, and one that has almost no impact on the actual customer base.

[@Shadowl]

​@@emikochan13there was a ton of videos on KZbin mentioning precisely that lol. Everyone knew about it. How can you say that stupidity didn't affect the game?

[@pptemplar5840]

​​@@earlyriser03I mean, it's clear that this game failed for almost EVERY reason, definitely not because of some stupid comment. Like obviously, I might have heard the NAME of this game mentioned once before I was receiving news that it was apparently supposed to be huge and that it spontaneously deflated. But considering that Ubisoft is arguably still taking lumps for saying much less hyperbolic and stupid things (a real achievement for Firewalk to beat them in this regard honestly), I think it's totally fair to say that this would have hurt the game significantly. It's just that inc concord's case there's basically no game to hurt, it BARELY materialized at all, of course there's no consequence for the game/studio if they never obtain anything worth losing.

[@MrYupsilon]

what a surprise right

[@dezmundtv962]

Many of the demo players for Concord gave polite and constructive feedback months before the game's launch. Many of them stated that the games price tag was a bit heavy, considering how it offered less than it's competition in terms of gameplay mechanics and features. They suggested that Firewalk studio reduce the price tag or wait longer and add more to entice consumers otherwise they wouldn't be interested. They ignored %100 of all player feedback and went ahead with a product that was already a hard sell, and here we are today.

[@WuRuYi]

Given how long it spent in development I think they just wanted to release it and move on, regardless of how successful it was. After a point it becomes virtually impossible to make back the money you spent developing. Sunk cost, and all that. To paraphrase the video, if the feedback process breaks down, the game can end up so far off track that making a game people want becomes very hard.

[@GodsFavDrunkDriver]

I do believe that studio was not a game studio, but just a bunch of "activists" pretending to be one...

[@youngwt1]

That’s interesting, I think part of hell divers success is that they put it out cheaper and it was in the range that people thought fuck it I’ll give it a try

[@Chastity_Belt]

Honestly, i would not be intrested in this game even if it 15$ or just free. It just looks unexcited.

[@zhenyucai8688]

There's just no talent in this studio. It took them over 4 years to make a hero shooter....a game like overwatch or valorant only took 2-3 at max. The team on this game was also massive and burned through cash. Compare it to a game like black myth wukong which took relatively close to the same dev time with 1000x more content and a fraction of the team size.

[@djf881]

Part of the problem here is the very grim and inescapable reality of the marketplace for online multiplayer “live service” games: These games are made to take all your time and, often, all your money. The people who are available for a new live service are the ones who aren’t currently engaged with an existing one, players who are willing to quit the live games they are currently playing, or players with enough free time to add a new one in addition to whatever they are already engaging with. This is a very zero sum marketplace. But I absolutely think the fact that this game put divisive politics front and center in its branding and marketing is a big part of why it failed. The first impression people got of the game was the fact that it had multiple women (including a trans woman) of color among the playable characters and only one racially ambiguous human male character who might be white, Latino or Asian. This sent a message to a large and vital segment of the player base that the game wasn’t for them, and the pronouns for each hero on the character select screen also alienated a big chunk of the player base. This was featured in the first announcement trailers, and this game was known from the very beginning as the pronouns game. Concord’s much discussed miss on character design is also likely related to the political views of the designers. Overwatch characters are very diverse and Overwatch is a pretty woke game, but the characters fit into archetypes and the characters’ designs fit a character fantasy that matches their playstyle. For example, Reaper is an assassin who uses a teleport ability to flank the enemy team, allowing him to do massive damage at close range with his dual shotguns. He wears a skull mask and black tactical gear which creates an aesthetic that matches the mechanics and the fantasy the character represents. He’s also Latino, and that representation is certainly important to a segment of the player base, but it’s not as definitional to the experience of the character as those other things. By contrast, Concord characters like Baz, Daw and Emari seem to exist primarily to represent kinds of people the developers thought were underrepresented. There’s no fantasy associated with playing these characters, and their aesthetics and personalities don’t connect to their gameplay. The first and main thing about Baz is that she a black transgender woman. She uses knives, but she is not about knives the way Reaper is about flanking and shotguns and massive damage. The fantasy she embodies is a black transgender woman as a playable hero in a video game. The other stuff she does is secondary to that representation, and that expresses a deeply held value for the designers that just does not resonate with the audience. It’s possible Firewalk thought there was a huge market of players of color, LGBT gamers and women who felt they were not represented by existing products and were looking for a game that would center and represent them, although that is a weird assumption since there are numerous heroes of color and female heroes in Overwatch, Apex, Valorant and other competing products. But for whatever reason, Firewalk decided to make the wokest game on the market and it became central to their branding and central to how the audience perceived the game. And nobody wanted it.

[@surrounndedbyClowns]

When you hate your customers, its only right that you fail miserably

[@aquapendulum]

I see a similar situation at the workplace of some of our clients in the entertainment industry. Actually, I heard what the employees on the tech side told me: There is a creative leader, there are smaller creatives working under him or her, and then there are the nerdy tech bros. I talk to the last group because I work on the tech side. On at least 4 cases, the story is the same: The creative lead is very confident he or she had a great vision, the nerdy tech bros see problems very early on as they implement the requests, but their feedbacks are always dismissed with phrases like "Well, now we know you're not our target demographics", "I'm the Chief Creative and you're not for a reason" and sometimes "This is not your job, we have Marketing and focus groups for gathering feedback". And then when the projects got far enough to have something to show to a focus group, too much work has already been done, all they could do was tweaking around the edges. Creative lead is too sure of his or her vision to admit that the nerdy tech bros had a point early in the project, so they just ship with some last-minute minor changes. The clients I worked with in these cases are not even big players in their respective entertainment industries, but these stories just match up too well with the output of the actual game industry-leading companies.

[@laurafryer6321]

Wow! Thanks for sharing your story.

[@guyincognito1406]

Ahh I’m one of those nerdy tech bros (20 years software dev) we give feedback because we see games as a sum of mechanics, there’s always some niche system that a really hit game presents that nobody did, or tweaks it… they just ignore us I’m like smh my moms was playing Mario in downtime at the hospital in labor with me, my 72 year old father is still playing Skyrim… but nah what do I know I’ve only been on these my life. Half of em don’t even know pinball was for gambling.

[@masterkendro]

This was so refreshing to listen to. You're actually sane and making sense, thank you for that!

[@enderguardian7443]

@@guyincognito1406don't call yourself a tech-bro my guy. tech nerd would be more fitting as tech bros are a combo of a frat bro and tech nerd

[@connor3284]

@@enderguardian7443 Maybe he likes beer and football.

[@tr777th3]

This is why you should never attack or ignore your audience's feedback, because it truly matters to listen to them the most especially when they're the ones who pay you.

[@linming5610]

The problem is, they don't want to listen to "far right" people and outright dismiss anyone showing even just a tiny tendency of being in the opposite side.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

​@@linming5610 "look, I just have some general constructive feedback that's definitely very normal: no fatties or black ppl ok?"

[@shoulderpyro]

@@linming5610 Though when you then put it into perspective, those wokies see everyone who doesnt directly agree with them as "far-right" regardless of their ACTUAL views. They /could/ be far-right, but more often than not they're either central, or even on the left themselves

[@fenrifegads5571]

This is why you should learn from the past. Weimar specifically... It aint about audience, profits, or sales. It's about divisive and demoralising propoganda.

[@Voliopop]

​@@linming5610idk man I've seen some shitty opinions and criticism from people from that sphere

[@melvin4524]

Man I wish I was in the game's industry in the early 2000s. It really was the Golden Age of Games

[@laurafryer6321]

It was pretty cool. I think it will be again. Thank you for watching!

[@hermitcard4494]

Just play classics. Still, that wont let you live and experience the 90s and early 2000s. What amazing cultural times.

[@Prizm44]

Meh, early 3D console games looked like shit, even at the time. Outside of PC gaming, I hated that era.

[@chilbiyito]

​@@Prizm44idk about you but i enjoyed games like armored core, resident evil, mgs and silent hill

[@Rapscallion2009]

For me it was 20 years after the golden era. What was really fun (and I was really young at the age) was the early 1980's when video games were still being worked out. You'd get something knocked out by 2 guys in their back bedroom and distributed on tapes you bought in a newsagent. Nobody knew what the rules were and did people want puzzle games? - arcade replicas? - weird, intellectual games or offbeat games? - how about academic or brainy games? - or trying to accomplish in 46k and 16 colours what people still struggle to do today? - the sheer diversity and variation of ideas was amazing. As was what some people accomplished with the basic hardware of the era. Gaming was different and still required you to use your imagination a lot - that white circle on a black background is definitely an alien planet full of weird culture and interesting things! that triangle of pixels - a galactic warship! Some games (text adventures) had no graphics at all and just described a scene for you to imagine and you set there picturing yourself strolling through a mythical kingdom. The video games of that period has a particular, special feel to them because the "money men" arrived and everything became about the "next big thing" that would pay for their new Porsche! The closest thing I can think of is the early days of the internet in the mid-nineties when it was the chaotic wild-west.

[@jeffgottwald7238]

The Algorithm brought me to this video today and I just wanted to say, your journalism and delivery remind me of the early G4 days and your professionalism is a breath of fresh air when compared to the high energy hyperactive norm that is youtube reviews. You've got my follow, my like and my comment. I look forward to watching more of your content!

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you for your kind words and for your sub!

[@edubs9828]

One of the most surprising things to learn about Concord is the game mechanic that was anti-rewarding for players. After you play a round as any character, you're not allowed to play as them again. So the game actively discourages you from maining a character? That might be the most antithetical game mechanic for a hero shooter. It reduces the loyalty anybody has to any character and makes the game that much harder to learn. You can't just main 1 character at at time, you have to try everyone, all the time. Wow. Just Wow. How was this not play tested out of the game before launch?

[@mrbluebell2735]

Forgot about their character cycling mechanic. That's annoying on top of obnoxious. That's about as anti fun as it can get. Wonder if that cycling algorithm needlessly added to the lobby time for new games. Because when someone drops out, the servers are going to match the player to an available game that has a slot for that particular character. Add waste of time to the fail pile.

[@aravindkm2012]

Probably a feature to ensure none of their self-inserts were ignored.

[@SheldonCHarrison]

the concord grape jelly i bought the day before launch has lasted longer than concord the video game

[@AppleBiscuits]

The concord jet had more passengers than the concord game had players

[@saamjaza1742]

The battle of Concord lasted longer than Concord did.

[@P.Whitestrake]

The Flight of the Concord band has more fans than Concord game had players.

[@aggressivecalm]

When your "modern audience", is less than 2% of the population, and less than 2% of them are gamers... You have made some ridiculous absurd business decisions.

[@CommanderLongJohn]

Ah but you forget they make up over 50% of all Twitter and Reddit users . . . . Thus, they somehow have validity and a voice and "matter." So much stock has been put into virtual words typed up by random-complete-strangers in a world full of over 10 Billion people, it's truly mind boggling.

[@nonbiri8904]

What crazy is, half of them are probably the ones who dominates and dictate the (western) industry right now means they have 1% less customers who will buy since they're the ones who creating them, now they only need to appease the 1% to start gaming

[@DioTheGreatOne]

​@@CommanderLongJohn This is why I hate social media. Because companies think that social media is an accurate representation of what most people think. They're using Twitter and Reddit as sources of opinions, even though those places are known for having people with very biased opinions and a very distorted view of the real world. Heck, imagine if some company used 4chan as a sample of opinions?

[@baalfgames5318]

Okay, I'm really getting sick of this whole "modern audience/woke" bullcrap. You guys make it out to be a literal crime to have anything other than sexualized straight white humans as characters in games.

[@aggressivecalm]

@@CommanderLongJohn Indeed. Pretending, and pandering to this microscopic group with the insistently demanding voice (Twitter and Reddit users... IGN, Kotaku...) that they "matter" above all others; has only had one outcome. And that is that this microscopic group with the insistent demands has become progressively demented, unbalanced and entitled. (It’s all very like pandering to a spoiled three year old child. You're really doing nobody any favours, including most of all the child.)

[@Weremole]

I think many read "Culture" and decided to comment without watching the video and getting the context...

[@DZ-X3]

There's a really interesting mix here, with some people gloating about a victory in the Culture Wars, on any forum that's remotely related. On the other hand, there are plenty of people here with something novel to say as well. I'm glad for those boilerplate comments, though, as they probably helped push this video to where I could see it.

[@ThePaulineu]

Yeah, workplace culture is different from "culture wars"

[@Tuntira]

I was one of those, but this video is actually bang on.... I still think that the 40 dollar price was the biggest anchor, character designs can change, but that price hits hard. Also factor in that the presentation at the onset has been poor, so the game was already fighting an uphill battle

[@dangox3370]

there's just no doubt about it. That sort of "culture" is a big reason why concord failed. The character designs were so obviously political.

[@tarekcat1]

​@@dangox3370 still it wasn't the topic of this video

[@danielreed5199]

One of the most important things I ever learned about game development is that you are developing towards a moving target. Because of this it means that developing a game in a linear fashion is unpractical, it needs to be considered dynamically. Want to add a feature you have never heard of in 2 years time? plan for it now. Want to adjust for user feedback over the next few years? plan for it now. Things need to change, things will change... so plan for it now.

[@laurafryer6321]

I agree completely. Putting a buffer in your schedule up front is critical. Thanks for watching!

[@SachinJames89]

It's not just the videogame industry, this problem has infested all the industry!!! Comic Books, Film, Music, IT, Tech... You name it!!! 😒

[@Gansimus]

Dammit people. She's not talking about the "culture wars". She's talking about the culture within the company. The values they hold, how they decide to interact with themselves, their customers, their peers, their direct reports/leaders. How they decide to identify problems and solve them.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Literally showing how the people in this culture war calling gamers taelentless are Toxic themselves.

[@trip9845]

so? Concord's visual design was based on DEI ideals and made for the "modern audience"

[@r99azm80]

See forest for the trees, huh? 🤡

[@jankbunky4279]

Just more proof the anti-wokies are at least as tribal and brainless as the people they believe they're arguing against.

[@ninjagoboy46]

@@trip9845okay? And that's not the point of the video, it suggests you don't actually want to engage with what the creator is saying and instead want to push your culture war agenda just as strongly as the developers pushed their ideals...

[@Larry]

I'd say the initial trailer for the game didn't exactly help endure people to Concord's premise. It felt like it was advertising a completely different game. A bit of a sucker punch from the developer. But I am surprised they focused on Overwatch's popularity as the greenlight. Two similar games to OW were also released at the same time, BattleBorn and LawBreakers, and they failed spectacularly. So how that wasn't a red flag to them is beyond me.

[@yurigagarine6998]

I genuinely thought this was a Guardians of the Galaxy tie-in game except that they couldn't afford to have the likeness of the movie actors like in that Avengers game.

[@harrymorris2361]

@Larry Hello, you! I mean, I don’t even remember hearing a peep about concord until everyone kept talking about the character select.

[@Kaimax61]

And the only one to survive the Overwatch Launch was Paladins, which was Free 2 play out of the box.

[@Larry]

@@Kaimax61 Valorant has done okay, but they really dragged their heels bringing it to consoles.

[@shingshongshamalama]

Capitalism has a tendency to see success, take completely the wrong lesson from it, and then desperately try to clone it.

[@TwilightWolf032]

The reason Concord failed is because it wasn't made for gamers, it was made specifically for the people up top making the decisions. "It's not made for you", "This is the game I would like to play", or so they say. The message was heard, loud and clear. We're not the target audience and you hate us! So we're not gonna buy your game! Simple as that!

[@AndrewJHayford]

The video literally says exactly what you just did

[@TwilightWolf032]

@@AndrewJHayford I condensed it.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

​@@AndrewJHayford I know it's rare, but people can agree on the internet.

[@albiceleste101]

I'm glad this experiment was made so certain radical groups stop shaming devs for making badass/hot looking characters

[@mainstreetsaint36]

So instead of the game as it is: Hot characters, still stale gameplay?

[@lucasLSD]

@@mainstreetsaint36 that's the catch 22 reviewers put themselves in, they all say the gunplay is good, that it is a good game, so by that logic the game can only fail because of it's designs.

[@richardbrooks5899]

You really have no clue do you?

[@Wolta]

I think that's the main issue with big studios these days. They want to appeal to what audiences want, or at least try to, instead of making a game they enjoy themselves. I like some AAA games, but my previous statement is why I like indie games a lot more. They tend to just make what's enjoyable to them, and cultivate their own specific audience from it. Instead of needing every single person in the world to play your game.

[@crushycrawfishy1765]

There's a balance. It's important to make a game you want to play. That a pretty common reason people start making a game. But like she says in her video, it's not about what you want, it's what the player wants.

[@MikZran]

I have led a software team, and I know you are right about how when feedback is ignored, programmers become clock punchers and not active team members.

[@laurafryer6321]

Exactly! Thank you for watching!

[@Rapscallion2009]

Absolutely nothing exclusive to software there. It's just how people are. The thing is that you do need both types of people for anything.

[@user-uf4rx5ih3v]

If you ignore someone's feedback what else would you expect of them other then doing the work you assign to them specifically. Being passionate and contributing more then is asked of you works if the person doing it believes that their work will amount to something in the end.

[@DefinitelyNotAMachineCultist]

@@Rapscallion2009 100% this. Problems only occur when you don't tell clock punchers they're supposed to be clock punchers, _or_ you tell them they're clock punchers, but then act as if they're not, expecting them to shoulder decisions, responsibilities, and risks beyond their pay grade, forcing accountability down the 'chain of command' so that the higher ups can cover their asses. That or their input is ignored, and you're still surprised they become clock punchers. Saying that everyone is accountable is one of those cute, warm and fuzzy sayings that you can _smell_ the BS off of in corporate settings. When everyone is accountable, no one is. The idea of equal accountability is a con to dissolve it.

[@maximus4765]

1994-2014, 30 years of pretty good games.

[@humrH2360]

From what I've seen of the game staff's social media accounts on top of the overall design, it is incredibly likely that there was a highly toxic work culture and a social bubble in place. The timelines match up for Concord to have been inspired by Overwatch when it started development, but it was clear that there was a refusal to think long-term and watch the changes in the market. And the character designs show a massive lack of cohesion, as if there was no communication between the designers and their appearance, role, and color palettes were determined by some sort of mad libs raffle. My brother-in-law even said that the characters look like they were designed by AI. But the lynchpin of my suspicions have been the highly insufferable, hostile, and egotistic behaviors of the developers on social media when this game got released, put through the wringer, and finally canned. They showed a blatant lack of responsibility and accountability, trying to spin anything from this game as some kind of win. I can't imagine _anything_ getting done with people like this. Even if someone were to tell me "but they don't represent the entire team!", remember that it takes the efforts of countless people across lord knows how long to create something great, but all it takes to make it come crumbling down is one idiot and a few seconds.

[@Yattayatta]

I completely agree with everything you said here. We can do a quick thought experiment to show how right this turns out, lets imagine we go to a McDonalds to order food, the staff overall is great, but there is one server that for one reason or another just looks at you with disdain. When your order is finished, he opens up your burger right in front of you, spits on it, and puts it back in the box, all while filming for social media. Would this one action from that employee damage the McDonalds brand? Yes, very much so, even though everyone else at every restaurant are perfectly nice and competent. So the excuse "It was just one dev that said blablabla on twitter" really doesn't work, you wouldn't accept this in any other line of work.

[@mrturbo84]

If you would look into the new Design Position so called Narrative Designer... you will find out that these People have so much influence in the game they have every finger in every Department.

[@statikk666]

The 'broken feedback loop' applies to many businesses, where the manager rolls out projects that are not viable but they like them.

[@vwyd]

I was expecting some ragebait anti-woke nonsense, but I was very humbled, this might be the most valid "Why Concord fail" video on the whole internet by far

[@Dawsons_Stuff]

Amazing analysis on broken feedback loops. Was a QA tester for a few games and so many times I’ve seen the same scenario of “Give us feedback!” -> “We’re not looking for negative feedback!” -> They stop listening to QA testers -> Nothing changes, game dies at launch due to failing to adapt and/or too late of a release. Gaming is ALWAYS changing and studios will be forced to adapt to keep up with those changes. What worked a few years ago may not work now yet some developers refuse to change or take constructive feedback. A lot of times I witnessed some testers kicked for playing a competitor’s game despite it bringing insight on what our team could improve on. It’s insane.

[@amharbinger]

How much is Sony really hurting after this? They had Pixar level CGI trailers and cutscenes, even a special edition controller. But even when the game was free during the beta, it barely crossed 2K players on Steam. I would argue that Overwatch proved that if you make a game good enough people will be willing to overlook the paid pricing. Yeah, it launched in 2016 but the game was so good that people didn't care about the $60 even if it had loot boxes. Despite a negative reception surrounding it, the content, heroes, maps, and great gameplay have held it over. I played Concord during its free betas, it was painfully average. Everything about the gameplay was either mediocre or done better in other games and the player count reflected this. They made something worse than bad, it was standard. To the point the character designs were made not with fun in mind but a message, and gamers are getting sick of it.

[@SWOTHDRA]

But overwatch 2 was free to play so the hype wore off quickly , those type of games are dead in the water now

[@changen4125]

@@SWOTHDRA overwatch 2 was overwatch 1 with a couple of new maps and buffed tanks. It was the same game that we played for the last 8 years. Shit has gotten boring. The hype for OW2 was for PVE content and coop, and they killed it immediately, which completely killed the concept of the project.

[@alexe589]

The market didn't change, at least not much. If this game had come out head to head against Overwatch, or even Paladins, it still would have fell flat on its face.

[@Peb02497]

And then theres Valve using the Blue Ocean strategy with Deadlock melting TF2 with Dota 2 making a Moba with third-person shooter controls and hero shooter designs

[@hastyscorpion]

What? The market changed a ton. Overwatch is bleeding players. This type of game is not in vogue.

[@Frontline_view_kaiser]

@@hastyscorpion Thats simply fatigue of Overwatch And it has nothing to do with the game failing. There was no time, no place where this game would have sucked not sucked

[@lucasLSD]

@@Peb02497 Blue ocean? They just arrived late at another genre, it's just Smite steampunk bro.

[@lucasLSD]

@@Frontline_view_kaiser Maybe if they had actually delivered the single player campaign instead of quietly cancelling it and only telling everyone else a whole year later.

[@ITAmich]

I absolutely, most definitely DID NOT get teary eyed hearing Totalbiscuit's voice again. RIP TB.

[@cl8804]

nt, jewbani

[@laurafryer6321]

I couldn't agree more. I remember that he was so kind to review Gotham a second time after we fixed some of our issues. Thank you again TB.

[@hershmergersh6733]

his WTF is Space Marine video popped up on my feed the other day. Had a similar reaction

[@gownerjones]

Oh no, I read your comment before it happens in the video. Now I am prepared with tissues and cookies.

[@nailertn82]

He left a void nobody managed to fill ever since. Sometimes I wonder what he would have made of the massive schism the culture war opened up in gaming.

[@darkwingduck9589]

Every high school graduate should understand the danger of echo chambers. If you are producing something that has to perform in the real world, you can not allow an echo chamber to form.

[@cameronsalmon1314]

One thing I’d like to add is the surge in popularity in Indie games and how they kind of just *work* in this market. They usually have a significant amount of love poured into them, with passion being the most motivating factor for releasing them and less about money. As a gamer, it’s much more appealing when the game you’re interested in purchasing was made by a small development team that wants to make a fun game and build a community rather than make a profit for their parent company.

[@jimjam5012]

When you listen to a small bunch of terminally online Twitter users and game journalists, your game will completely miss who the actual audience should be.

[@OmegaSpecter87]

Lack of culture. And values. And talent. And vision. And creativity. I can go on.

[@hookflash699]

This is what happens when you hire people based on certain superficial criteria that have nothing to do with talent, vision, creativity, etc.

[@gamesandplanes3984]

Incorrect. This is franjforr school bolshevism through and through.

[@Veylon]

@@hookflash699 The game's director was Ryan Ellis. White dude. Head Designer was Josh Hamrick. White dude. Lead Artist was Adrian Majkrzak. White dude. Writer was James B. Jones. White dude. They definitely had a hiring bias. They only wanted white dudes.

[@mrbluebell2735]

​@@Veylonmakes sense. There's only 1 female coded character in Concord. That's Lark the mushroom with ovipositor. Every other character is a teen male down to their bones in motion capture. Some of the feminine characters (Roka) have bulges in unusual places. All have small mammaries (even Emari). The character designs reek of subversion. On top of the Uncanny Valley effect is a universal sense that something is wrong. It's only in the last week with the characters being broken down and redesigned that it becomes apparent.

[@hookflash699]

@@Veylon Really? Do you honestly believe those guys were hired because they're "white dudes"? And, even if they were, wouldn't that just reinforce my point?

[@c0d3warrior]

I'd disagree on the "culture has changed" notion - judging by the current societal climate all over the Western World, I'd say they anticipated a cultural change that never materialised. Concord failed because the culture _didn't_ change.

[@finfrog3237]

The modern audience isn't a marketable demographic. But we'll continue to avoid that elephant in the room it seems xD

[@MarvinPowell1]

They made a game for The "Modern Audience." I _would_ say they all showed up, in the dozens, but most of Concord (and Dustborn's) players were KZbinrs, critics, and streamers mocking the game for content. There were about 3,000 paying customers total, and less than 1,000 playing on their first week. So excluding the cringe-streamers, there quite _literally_ is no modern audience. Everyone who worked on Concord and agreed with its art direction and execution, 100% deserves to lose their job.

[@austinbaccus]

​@@finfrog3237What is the modern audience everyone is referring to?

[@rebel4466]

@c0d3warrior It's a bit of both. The culture changed a bit for a time, but you can see that things are changing. The woker they get, the harder people push back. It's more or less a perspective issue though, not as much about the issue itself

[@rebel4466]

@austinbaccus You should be able to find out your self, just ask them. Can't be more than about 83 people

[@HolyknightVader999]

I remember when SWTOR was considered a massive flop just because it didn't dethrone World of Warcraft. Ah, how the times have changed.

[@LeeCooper-ho5so]

There’s something so profoundly true about that Simpson’s clip where Principal Skinner says, in terms, “is it me … no, it’s the children who are wrong”. If you’re making anything that relies on commercial success and mass market appeal, it is unprofessional to ignore - you know - your potentially paying customers

[@KonaSuba]

Yeah, it was pretty clear the dev team wasn't listening to anything and got themselves into an echo chamber

[@Mikx100]

And gaming journous run with it being a "good game" to the end. News flash people play the good games.

[@dimamord]

When I was taking business class, one of the main things they said for a successful business was 1. Don't get political, 2. Know why your doing what your doing, 3. Who is your target audience. Is like all these studios and businesses forgot the main rules on conducting business.

[@changen4125]

Cause DEI and politics directly supersedes all of that in modern business lol. No, we aren't in this company to make money, we are doing it to advance company diversity. LMAO. Most people gets through the annual 60 minute presentation and it goes out the other ear, some people actually drinks that kool aid and once the insane population builds enough mass, they start repelling the normal people and the normal people will start quitting. Basically, it's just a social bubble that grows overtime eventually you get an echo chamber. At that time, nothing else matters except DEI and politics as there is zero arguments and only consensus within the group.

[@ziggmiceter]

hey quick question what was political about Concord?

[@MillywiggZ]

With that time and money they could have made a new ‘Infamous’ *and* ‘Prototype’ game.

[@FightCain]

Or killzone

[@Flesh_Wizard]

I'd love a Prototype 3

[@richardbrooks5899]

But those aren't extractive live service games.

[@lono7732]

Hero shooters is the new Clash of Clans reskin hype. Everyone tries to jump on the profit train, while not realizing there is Clash of Clans already, which you will have to compete with.

[@blampfno]

This is the result of having an organization that is 100% cheerleader and 0% coach or players.

[@basileus-pr6jh]

You got yourself a new subscriber. How wonderful with an informed and critical yet fair voice which avoids the pitfalls found in the discourse of culture wars controversies and game journalist polemics. Absolute outstanding quality content.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you! I appreciate the sub!

[@Moskeeto]

Yeah, this is a great and very insightful video. I thought by the title it would be some culture war nonsense but I was pleasantly surprised! It's too bad most of the comments here are talking about culture ware nonsense as if that's the issue with games like this failing.

[@cybersoldierforever]

When I first saw the trailer, I was like “A guardians of the galaxy ripoff? Never mind.” Then I never hear a word from it again until they announce they are shutting it down.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Therein lies the bigger issue than anything else mentioned here. Game got no marketing.

[@nullpoint3346]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 It got a LOT of marketing, nobody wanted it.

[@NinjaRunningWild]

I buy games for gameplay NOT activism.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

Of course games can still have activism in them, just modern games tend to do it terribly. Some of the best games ever, like Metal Gear Solid and FF VII are heavily political and full of activism. But they're also great games.

[@temjiu9915]

I don't play these types of games. But I can honestly look at Overwatch and the characters and say "That looks cool, I would definitely play those characters if I was into this game." I also watched the gameplay footage and was positive. When I saw the Concord characters for the first time, My reaction was almost visceral. It was like opening that jar that's been in the back of the fridge for 3 months and the smell first hits your nose. I remember thinking "What the F3u3 is that!" It's like they took the worst concept for heroes possible, and then made them uglier, and then put them in gear that homeless peeps would avoid, and then hired people on crack to spray paint them. And they want to charge for this garbage? My mind was literally blown. I had no words. at least with the Jar you can put it back in the darkest part of the fridge and pretend it doesn't exist. But this stuff, this is out there now...forever.

[@Daniel-kx3zz]

These devs forgot: 1. Buying is not a must, it's an option(this is not taxes to tell us we must pay) 2. Marketing doesn't appeal to morale or feelings (people want pretty characters, no matter if people against beauty canons are offended) 3. If they can't accept feedback without getting angry, then they don't deserve to be part of the making of any product

[@winj3r]

Concord was made for an audience that is just a small group of people, highly vocal political activists, most of which don't play videogames. So of course the normal gamer had no interest in this game. The price tag was another issue, but even when the game was on open beta, free for all to play, player count was still low. Under 3000 concurrent players. For a AAA game, that cost 200 Million to make, it's no where enough.

[@laurafryer6321]

That's a great point about lack of players in beta. Thanks for watching!

[@mrturbo84]

And i do not believe the sales number was 25000. Just because an Analyst says so. 😆

[@laurafryer6321]

Good point LOL!

[@winj3r]

@@mrturbo84 I wish the gaming industry was a little more like the cinema industry. For almost every movie, we have published data for budgets and box office returns. It's not 100% accurate, but it's a lot more transparent than the gaming industry. With videogames, usually we only know how much a game sold, when the studio or publisher brags about good results. This reminds me of another point. After the open beta ended, Firewalk published a graph with some data about it. But it was all random, pointless metrics. Nothing about player count or even engagement numbers. This leads me to believe they knew exactly what to expect for the game's launch.

[@mrturbo84]

@@winj3r True, i wish that too. Realy they had a graph!? Where can i find it? Maybe yes, they knew but maybe not why would you waste so much mone? Some Dev's seem to be very arrogant and ignorant and they got told DE&I brings in the Money - a lie - and the Modern Audience is bigger, but not even the target Audience bought the Game. Strange.

[@Cosmocroft]

I cannot get enough of your videos they are so informative especially during this crisis in the industry

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you! I'm glad you find them informative. It's definitely been a rough few years for the industry.

[@pat7d9]

@@laurafryer6321 I agree. Everytime I hear of some goings on in the industry I check to see if you have a take on it.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you! I appreciate that you keep checking in!

[@nekad2000]

Crisis? Meh. Gaming is just course correcting. It was hijacked by activists a decade ago and gamers, always slow on the uptake, are now getting around to rejecting the garbage. It's a great thing. So crisis? Crisis for activists maybe.

[@zorro18759]

what crisis?

[@DumplingDoodle]

the concord grape jelly i bought the day before launch has lasted longer than concord the video game.

[@SkyBabyBoom]

Gotham City Imposters was actually a very fun game. The characters were not inspiring but the gameplay was awesome IMO.

[@laurafryer6321]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for checking out my video!

[@1luckyb802]

Myself and a bunch of my friends had a blast playing GCI. It was such a light hearted and endearing shooter that actually played really well. Good times.

[@elvinmacospag6989]

As a programmer, nothing is more damning than not being able to adapt to the rapidly changing field. As an artist, nothing will stunt you faster than ignoring feedback. Concord did both.

[@hunted4blood]

Man, I can make do with the little tidbits you've given us, but I would love to hear an inside retrospective on the life and development of Gotham City Impostors. I picked it up right at the end of its life, so I only have 117 minutes of playtime in the game. But they were a distinct enough 117 minutes that they stick out in my brain even 10 years later, which I think is the sign of a game with an incredibly strong foundation. Such a shame things turned out the way they did.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed the game and I appreciate your comments!

[@joefur2835]

@@laurafryer6321 Laura I’d like to thank you. You’ve earned my subscription today. It’s amazing to hear these insights from within the industry and to look at these failures from analytical viewpoints. Being a veteran in the industry gives you a perspective that is extremely unique and personal.

[@chesterstevens8870]

​@@laurafryer6321 And you worked on Crimson Skies, too? That was the game that convinced me to buy an OG XBox, thank you so much for the memories.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you! I appreciate that you subscribed and you like my content!

[@laurafryer6321]

Awesome! I loved working on Crimson. Jordan and his team were amazing. Thank you!

[@electrified0]

It's absolute insanity that they started development as a competitor to Overwatch and then completely ignored everything that happened around Overwatch 2 - like becoming cross platform and free to play - and everything that happened with games like THE FINALS that failed to carve out a sustainable niche in the genre.

[@Ozzianman]

Uhhh, what? According to SteamDB, The Finals is currently hovering around 16k players and that is just Steam. It is not even a hero shooter like Overwatch. If I absolutely have to make a comparison, I would rather compare it to TF2 since The Finals actually have some overlap with that game in regards to tools and weapons. That game has it's niche, being a objective based arena shooter with destructible environments. It is still getting updated and the developers are actively asking for feedback from players.

[@changen4125]

@@Ozzianman the finals was a fucking insanely good game in terms of gunplay and movement, and then they refused to rebalance stuff. It took me 2 games of getting nuked to uninstall it as it made 2 out of 3 classes completely unusable. It took them like 2 month to rebalance while they were bleeding players. Why should I play against noob tubes in the finals when I can just do that in COD.

[@Ozzianman]

@@changen4125 Not an issue anymore, all clases are viable and recent updates have had generally good changes.

[@Hydrodictyon]

@@Ozzianman finals started out with 250k and failed to keep even 10% if that around, you call that a success? If so, than helldivers 2 aren’t failing as well then

[@Ozzianman]

@@Hydrodictyon Yes, the vast majority of live service games lose most of their starting playerbase. People do indeed play different games, people move on to different games. The few live service games that are able to retain numbers close to or higher than they started with is an anomaly. Consider this: The game is getting updated. The game is getting new content. This means the game is at the very least, profittable. Helldivers 2 is also alive with currently 17k players on Steam. I would be very interested to know what the monthly unique player count is for both of those games as that would give us a good estimate for active player population. A game is only dead when it can not be played anymore. If you want to see failures, there are Concord and Lawbreakers.

[@wandererlidia]

Love your vids and the calm delivery of your insight. To many of these discussions these days are way to angry for me to watch after a week at work.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed it and I hope your weekend goes well!

[@alicaljungberg3742]

@@laurafryer6321 It's really interesting to hear the perspective of the production and publisher side of the games industry. As a gamer of 25+ years now, it's a perspective I feel we almost never get. Most of the insights i get come from independent games-media and when they occasionally get an unfiltered interview with an actual developer, who will very often blame most problems in the industry on the publisher side.

[@MichaelHill-sg8ks]

I think No Man's Sky is a great example of having a good culture at a studio. They heard all the complaints people had with the game and knew that they had to save the game, or else no one would ever take them seriously as a studio again. So, instead of blaming the players, they just hunkered down and carried on developing free updates until it miraculously became one of the best space exploration games ever made, against all the odds.

[@hgbuddentee]

ignoring your target audiences preferences and even lecturing them about being wrong isn't the best idea if you try to sell a product. concord killed concord

[@shishkebaba]

The "demands to be called professor" thing is wild

[@edubs9828]

I forgot about that! lol

[@mrturbo84]

Btw. What i do not get is, why did they not pick up where Blizzard stopped with Overwatch 2. After i heard the Devs would stop development on the PVE and the backlash that followed, i would have talked to my Boss and say hey we should do the PVE Mode... the whole Story Trailer of Concord indicated to me that there would be a Story Mode but was not.

[@AdelaideBen1]

Totally agree... The fundamental premise of the game doesn't fit PVP imo... And I think it would have been better to bake in factions into the experience... Rather than have everyone play the same characters.... Make it feel like you're playing a vibe or style... But the characters just looked universally bland by themselves.

[@mrturbo84]

@@AdelaideBen1 Amen!

[@TravisHi_YT]

They very clearly could not course correct in any way.

[@blknmild]

Thank you so much for making this video! As someone who has worked in the film industry for many years and is now in the game industry our perspectives are not always well understood. First and foremost I am a gamer. I saw the issues with Concord coming from miles away and could have predicted its reception by the gaming audience. On the other hand, it's hard to feel nothing but sadness when I see my LinkedIn pile up with "Open to Work" notifications from my peers who have no say in the big decisions of film or game making, they just have families to feed or need to pay their rent. Many videos have relished in the demise of Concord and are full of emotion but I love the approach you've taken in your video. Regardless of emotions or which "Side" you're on, there are lessons in game development that seniors in the industry know but are pushed aside or are forgotten due to bad leadership and ideological stances which create toxic environments. I ultimately hope we can just get back to making fun games and the layoffs/studio closures stop. I look forward to seeing your future videos!

[@TheRealPDizzle]

Being angrily told something is "not for you" then being blamed after it failed because you listened and didn't buy it is proving to be a rather unsuccessful marketing tactic and a surefire way to doom your project where people might have trickled in to give it a chance. I followed this drama closely. I would argue it's probably a bad idea to be antagonistic with your prospective playerbase and then attempt to market to a minuscule demographic that also doesn't really game, either. I can't say much about the coders in the light, sound, physics, and other gameplay departments, but some very vocal individuals in the art department were onboard with the exclusionary and patronizing, hostile tone the studio mantled. So while some grifters are getting their comeuppance, the massive failure of Concord has probably put a lot of Indian, Pakistani, and other desperate, hard-working, underpaid coders out of a job. All drama aside, Vanguard was a really fun game. I still remember bits of it like yesterday. I was impressed and elated to hear you worked on that. It was a unique game with a really cool massive world. Most people back then didn't even know of it, so to say today that it's an obscure title would be an understatement. I was sad when it shut down. Star Wars: Galaxies was another epic experience. If you weren't around to play some of these games in the early 2000s, you just can't imagine what an exciting new world it was. I can remember competing on the StarCraft: Brood War PGT in 2005 and '06 for a spot in some tournaments in Seoul, South Korea and a shot at some sponsorships. People thought playing PC games for money back then was the dumbest thing they'd ever heard. It wasn't even called "esports" back then. I can remember having a few chances to make something from gaming but the support just wasn't there back then. Times have really changed since I was a kid. Gaming is more ubiquitous now, which is good, but the state of the industry has been driven by pure corporate greed and anti-customer practices for too long now. Big studios that once were household names and could be relied on for publishing creative, high-quality stuff are now the laughing stock: designing games by committees with aggregate data and marketing trends. I hope there's a new renaissance for the industry one day. In 2001 we all envisioned PC gaming to be like The Matrix without all the dystopian stuff. Boy how wrong we were.

[@Demokaze]

"We weren't making the game for me but for a target audience." No, you make live service games for the company which will profit way more in the long run from players who will pay for cosmetics, advantages, mounts, expansions, subscription etc.

[@BubbleTea033]

4:08 I can say with absolute certainty that a lot of young people with good heads on their shoulders and lots of passion for the medium are just choosing different career paths entirely, because they foresee this happening to them. I don't need to get hired and work on a project to know that this kind of culture would absolutely kill any interest I have, and I'd just do the bare minimum to get the product out. I couldn't see how that would ever lead to a fulfilling career, and given that the pay in games is still ass, even now, I just couldn't justify it. I would have loved to work alongside a team of people like you, Laura. Thankfully for me, I'm doing good running my own business in a different industry, so the choice doesn't keep me up at night.

[@takemeseriouslyplx2124]

Gotham city imposters was such a fun game, played it so much when I was younger

[@asshrimpleasthat799]

This was such an interesting and informative video. As someone who’s very interested in speculating on exactly what went wrong here it was very refreshing to see something like this after sifting through so many hyperbolic and poorly-researched clickbait videos about the situation. Looking forward to checking out the rest of your catalog!

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the other videos!

[@qualitypass658]

Cut the bullshit. They are asking for 40 and 60 bucks for a half-baked game.

[@Azeur]

Just the character designs alone are a red flag. In a Hero Shooter, especially one inspired by Overwatch, it's important to understand at a glance what a character is all about. Concord's designs are such a mess, as an example we have a character shaped like a rectangle in a space helmet with a rocket launcher - who somehow can fly despite the lack of any devices and can slam into the ground - nothing about the design says this. All we know at a glance is that they can shoot with a big rocket. Meanwhile Pharah from Overwatch, a tall and thin silhouette, she has clearly visible rocket boosters on her back and an outfit to support such flights. You can immediately tell what she's capable of. Not to mention the alternative skins for Concord's characters, all just lazy recolours except for the "epic" skin, that objectively made the terrible character designs even worse.

[@josephmarch7142]

Cheers for this. I'm a lead artist at a studio right now, and that's sitting we had to always keep in mind. Target audience. Like real target audience, not ones on social media.

[@lucasLSD]

Like askagamedev said: "80% of players will never engage with anything beyond the game itself. 20% will actually bother to go online and read something about the game, and a mere 5% will be engaged so much as to actually bother to post and communicate with other players." His mistake was thinking every developer cares about data like he does, Concord ones surely didn't.

[@Honyakusha]

I'm an indie game developer, and half of my resting time goes into researching events or festivals that are coming up so we can attend, hopefully get some feedback, and show people our game. Feedback is vital because we made the game for players, not ourselves. It is frustrating to see such entitled cabals getting so much funds and attention and still messing with the simplest and most core thing. "Player first." If I had the tiniest amount of their funds, I would localize our game for a wider audience, hire a social media manager, and even a good VA for our intro. Such unfairness.

[@boiledliddo]

goodluck on the game you are making.

[@MarvinPowell1]

You guys are the future. You should kinda be happy AAA gaming is sinking itself like the Titanic. As for voice acting, see if it's legal to use Eleven Labs AI voices for commercial use.

[@FutabaBiggestSimp]

"HALF OF MY RESTING TIME GOES TO *[IRRELEVANT]* " MAN UP AND GET A GRIP. I work at R+D and I don't give a minute more to my job other than closing everything and then leaving. IMAGINE IF AN ENGINEER SAID SUCH PATHETIC SOB WORDS. I don't go around telling sob stories to get funds for the company. If you need even more funds and time to make your game, and you are unable to reach anyone for your project, then probably wasn't really that good and probably no amount of resources would really help it, as literally no one cares about it.

[@Honyakusha]

​@@FutabaBiggestSimp Your whole comment is irrelevant. Comparing R+D and indie game development like they are the same? Are you illiterate? Do R+D sector taking braindead people nowadays? Imagine a game dev said such bitter words while bitching with whole caps. Go take a chill-pill and relax dear person who identifies as engineer.

[@Honyakusha]

@@FutabaBiggestSimp Darn, it looks like someone woke up and choose violence today! Hahah, chill lil bro. Based on your lack of literacy, absurd comparison and ridiculous comment, it is clear that you don't know anything about indie scene. You get exposure for both players and investors in those premises! Our game supposed to be fully funded but one of our foreign sources still holding their promised grants because of their internal issues. Hence we cut the corner of VA and localization for now. Even then we got thousands of whishlisted thanks to steam's cozy game festival and invited to few game expo both domestic and overseas. So yeah, if you don't give a minute of more, it's not for you. It's a passion work and goddamn it gets too hectic sometimes. Have a nice day!

[@SarahC2]

Prof "Proffesor" Wertle (not a professor) was likely the worst loud/brash/bully in the team and pushed their politics into the game hard. Very forthright in their need to get unva-d fired, you can imagine the burnt-earth effect she had on everyone's feedback about the game. I do wonder occasionally just how much "community" in the office was damaged by just this one person?

[@someguy5035]

This phenomenon happens everywhere. Coporate, military, small business. And to be frank, the worst leaders/mangers I ever worked with/for were women. They took everything personally and behaved like tantrum-throwing children.

[@matthewlongo6404]

Sony fans have been begging for Killzone, Resistance, Socom, Warhawk etc, but Sony would rather make this slop. A AAA Socom with cutting edge graphics, would blow the doors off.

[@dunetiger]

They forgot the number one rule: Make money. That's the entire point. There's a whole generation of developers out there that have absolutely no grasp of this concept. For whatever reason, they are so dialed into the media they consume that they feel like it is some leading method if disseminating ideas and while entertainment is certainly effective in that space, the POINT of entertainment is to make money. Fine, you won - you made your statement, whatever it was, and proved that you are "better" than everyone else. Thing is, nobody cares and if your work sucks, then you failed on every single scale. And if your work sucks, you make no money, and you fail on the only scale that matters. And hey, guess what - it's not OUR job to ensure you keep yours.

[@accidentcellar6307]

6:21 Now it's virtually "unnaceptable" to say out loud you're making a game for young men and boys. It's applauded if you make a game for women and girls though. The same applies for movies. It's taboo. Men can't have something of their own anymore. The far left demands that it must be INCLUSIVE.

[@drunkenhobo8020]

Ah yes, the far left. In charge of multinational monolithic corruptions.

[@Edheldui]

I was 14 when Gotham City Impostors came out, i absolutely loved it and you'll find the same sentiment every time that game is brought up in a discussion.

[@Nmwhat]

It was really interesting to hear you talk a bit about your experience working on Vanguard. I was in fact one of the few people Vanguard was actually designed for: I adored the original EverQuest but then found WoW much too easy and thus unengaging and dull. Even in its frustratingly incomplete release state, Vanguard showed so much potential to a player like me; some of the class designs (like blood mage and disciple) were simply fantastic and felt like proper evolutions of the EQ model rather than WoW's flashy streamlinings. I had heard about many behind-the-scenes issues in its development, but I hadn't thought about the extent to which Vanguard flopping was a result of the team failing to properly research their competition. That makes a lot of sense, though. At the time, I remember being annoyed that so many of my fellow MMO fans wanted a simplistic, stylized loot treadmill, but obviously I can recognize looking back how much better WoW's devs understood what it took to get subscriptions. I don't know whether it's a niche you continue to follow, but in recent years a handful of small MMO projects have arisen targeted squarely at people like me and Vanguard's intended player base (i.e., now-grown-up EQ nostalgics). These include projects like Pantheon (helmed by Brad McQuaid until his death) and Monsters and Memories, which looks the most promising to me. Unlike Vanguard, these projects seem to be more aware of who's playing and how many of us there are likely to be, and so they've tuned their expenditures and ambitions accordingly.

[@laurafryer6321]

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. You make a great point about the small MMO's tuning their ambitions accordingly. I'm glad you're still able to play the kind of game you love!

[@Nmwhat]

@@laurafryer6321 Well, I'll definitely try playing them whenever they release, but unfortunately the same overlong development cycle you mentioned in the video applies to these more niche games too. I think Pantheon, for example, has been in the works for around a decade. It's been interesting to watch from the outside, at least.

[@Zepdos]

I used to love Gotham City Imposters, I was right in that age demographic when it came out. Super cool to hear a bit about the background of development. From purely a consumer perspective, I think there is still a space for atypical, non-inspiring, “awkward” character designs in online service games but the problem is that you can’t make your entire cast unappealing and expect to have your game be massively popular. Fantastic video!

[@kaladinstormblessed8790]

You have no idea how refreshing it is for s video essay like this to just fet straight into the details and meat of the video. So many SHORTER videos have absurdly long intros involving barely relevant skit or story that add nothing of value. Thank you so much

[@Dr._Nicolas]

we are not even mad at the devs, we are happy that these game fail because of its model and philosophy, is not our responsibility to keep the jobs of someone, we are not goin to play something that we don't want just because they tell us.

[@NoMadKid]

Concord pros: Polished and looks great. Cons: Uninspired design and redundant.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Hey now you can't be saying this kind of stuff. You have to say in no uncertain terms that every single thing about that game was bad

[@mrbluebell2735]

​@@mechanicalmonk2020nah, this nails it accurately. Will have to give the mechanics of the game its due. It plays adequately, is free of egregious bugs and has a competent physics model. Unfortunately, it's washed over by lots of beige and ochre. Overall, the bones of the game is overshadowed by poor taste.

[@PherPhur]

@@mrbluebell2735 That and the fact it's a hero shooter that chose to lean more into the FPS side of things. Hero shooters became popular because people have been playing FPS after FPS for 20 years. The fundamental of an FPS, the skill shots and the competitive nature are what people came back for, but the rest was getting old. Concord looks like it's basically Halo with map items as static loadouts. bleh

[@anecro]

Not even remotely close to "looks great", I don't think I've seen an uglier game the past 5 years. Completely missed that one unless you're talking about how real the graphics look, which is still an average "meh" by today's standards. Have you seen Space Marine 2? That's good graphics

[@roozbeh6999]

> looks great huh ?

[@deathproof8732]

Lets make a safe game that rips off another game from almost 10 years ago. But lets make the characters non offensive and a safespace for the modern audience. Insert John Travolta looking around lost meme

[@mainstreetsaint36]

You mean stale, not safe.

[@deathproof8732]

@@mainstreetsaint36 safe is the word they use for being non offensive. Stale is something completely different.

[@Marlonbc90]

Remember the episode of the Simpsons where Homer discovers he has a brother, the brother has a car company and decides Homer is going to design his nex car? An engineer calls the brother halfway through development and tells him this was a terrible idea, it is going to bankrupt the company. Homer's brother tells the engineer to hang up the phone, call him back and say the opposite of everything he just said. The company goes bankrupt This must be what essentially happened with Concord. It must be, willful blindness is the only explanation. And willful blindness happen when you are motivated by ideology (like my brother is the best person for this job) and when you want to use ideology to substitute reality

[@Lacucarachadefuego]

It could also have to do with the fact that the majority of people, myself included, didn’t even know concord existed until it was shutting down.

[@DrSleazoid]

Turns out letting the pink/blue haired inmates run the asylum doesn't lead to satisfying results. Who would have thought.

[@hughmassey6712]

Absolutely not knowing your audience is what killed this game, the second thing they did wrong was insert so much dei at no point was the marketplace good for woke games in fact there's a saying that says go woke go broke and we mean it

[@cikame]

There's a lot of assumptions about what kinds of characters gamers like to play as, but you don't need to assume as it's all out there to see, people are online talking about their favourite characters, loads of games have character creators, there's thousands of artists on Xitter and other sites, cosplayers, can also just look at game sales... To endeavour to create something people don't like is a bold move, if the idea was to challenge expectations i guess they succeeded.

[@HenriqueM-jh1ye]

The Game Industry is one of the few industries where the industry employees shit on the consumers and expect nothing will happen. Imagine a Cosmetic Brand shiting on women's heads and expect them to still consuming their products?

[@fernandonavia8804]

Gaming is a hobby, its something people do outside their daily activities and duties to just have fun or relax a little. The same as watching TV, reading a book, painting, etc. So its not really a "gamer" thing, its a human thing and i think thats what all these companies forgot. You CAN'T force people to like, consume or enjoy things that they are not interested in; you cant force someone to "hey watch this new movie/tv series or you're homophobic" or force someone to read a book they dont care or even heard about "or else you're transphobic", same with someone who just paint for a hobby, you cant tell that person "you either paint what I WANT YOU TO PAINT or else you're X-phobic". When you take what's happening in gaming (and tv series and cinema tbh) and put in into perspective, you CLEARLY realise how utopian this society is becoming and how truly evil and inhumane this whole agenda is. They are literally ordering us people to not just do stuff but to THINK, LIKE, ENJOY, ACCEPT and BELIEVE in their BS "or else you're wrong, evil and also, cancelled". We are heading more and more to 1984