Death of a Game: Concord

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Thanks for the overwhelming support everyone, including those who were emotional enough to post, and yet not finish the video! We feel this is one of our best yet, and the reception matches that. We hope you enjoyed our unique take on Concord. We hope you also enjoyed the time we took to analyze the game, analyze the narratives surrounding it, and those who analyzed it. And to any other brave DEI warriors, feel free to brave the Discord.gg/nerdslayer to really make your "arguments" heard properly...if you don't...you lose. Checkmate. Welcome to the internet!

[@slowpoketailss]

Link appears to be broken

[@chilbiyito]

The credits of the game are longer than this video 💀

[@christopherthibeault7502]

No leadership for developing Concord, huh. Sort of reminds me of that line from the Jerky Boys movie: "Thank you for calling 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenue." "WHO THE FUCK'S IN CHARGE OVER THERE?"

[@its.mevlana66666]

I really appreciate how you basically KO'd both parties of the culture war surrounding the game. Both believe they have the definite answer but the truth lies in the middle as always. Great job🎉

[@uhagi6720]

I absolutely love your videos, but your rant about SBI and DEI was very off the mark and missed a LOT of details in regards to this game's development team and their mindset when making it. I would personally prefer that such rants are simply removed from future videos entirely if you wish to remain completely neutral, because a good amount of people could counter many of the points you made and cause others to question your research.

[@arwing20]

This game must have set the record for how fast a video game can flop. No surprise it turned up on Death of a Game so fast

[@akaimizu1]

For one that costs that much money to make. It’s right up there with The Culling 2. A game in which it reached a major maximum of simultaneous players of …. 20. It died soon after it reached 2 maximum players in just a few days later.

[@aquapendulum]

It's gonna be tough beating the record of Immortals Muv-Luv Alternative, which shut down after 6 HOURS of going live. Reason? Not for a lack of popularity, but for a bug that was instantly exploited to permanently cripple the game economy.

[@greglane501]

It 100% did.

[@brandonschnacker1854]

@@akaimizu1 if i remember correctly the culling 2 was only actually playable for 12 hrs as after that it never had enough players online on pc to start the match and they lost community trust by shutting down culling 1 to sell culling 2 to force players on there

[@mariawhite7337]

​@@nilpyc307 that was an indi dev. This is literally SONY. Its hilarious

[@FatalKitsune]

They've got a big, gorilla-looking dude who shields people by turning his skin to glittery, gem-like stone and they DIDN'T name him Diamondback.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

fair point

[@nickochioneantony9288]

They named him Star Child, so generic... I prefer something more imaginatively embarrassing such as Galaxy Juvenile or Cosmos Litter. Or even more epic like Sweet Baby.

[@Danny-mp8dq]

Big guy with a blocking ability and a punch Close enough. Welcome back, Doomfist

[@FatalKitsune]

@@amalekedomite You ok buddy?

[@BlueBARv5]

This is kinda of "R-word"..

[@Timeyy]

The reason people focus on how the characters look so much is because their core business model is selling skins for these characters. When your whole business model is selling visual dlc you dont get to complain about people focusing on characters' looks...

[@uhagi6720]

Plus, this was a HERO shooter. Character design is EVERYTHING when it comes to a hero shooter because the goal should be to make you imprint upon the characters you can select. Overwatch and TF2 have such loyal followings because the characters are interesting and make people feel attracted towards playing them. Concord doesn't even have R34 art of any characters, which tells you a LOT on the internet.

[@ubermaster1]

@@uhagi6720even less popular hero shooters like Paladins knows how to do this. I can look at a picture of some of the original heroes and immediately know who they are. Hero shooters live and breathe on how attached a person gets on a character, I would’ve never liked OW as much as I do if it wasn’t for Zenyatta looking the way he does.

[@Lynxx52]

I won't play or watch anything with Characters that I hate looking at or I find annoying

[@pseudonym3690]

Damn, I must be getting old. I play shooters for the gameplay. Couldn't care less about how my character(s) look.

[@carlosfranceschy9428]

Exactly! Like it or not looks ARE important on characters people play as constantly

[@Deleteaware]

I desperately want this game’s failure to be in a textbook someday.

[@gamrage]

Possibly as a reference of what not to do in a business textbook.

[@Rhomcom]

Even if it doesn't get into the books, this is absolutely going to become a case study for business and game dev students.

[@onlywithbuts1781]

Given the speed it failed with, i bet someone has already done that.

[@coruscant100]

It's most likely going to be used in classes for game developers about how NOT to make a game.

[@aidans1188]

@@Rhomcom oh 100%, there is so much wrong with it like… boring and unappetizing characters and lore,being another hero shooter in a genre absolutely flood with em, the representation being rather poor representation feels like they went “let’s make a gay character and the fact that they’re gay is their whole personality” and not “let’s make a engaging character who is also gay” etc etc, plus add a 40$ price tag and a little culture war seasoning and you have a game people will be discussing about for a long time after it dies. (not for the reasons they intend but still)

[@JGTorres948]

Kudos to concord, the first dead service game ever

[@pogo575]

"Colorful characters" .... makes every character desaturated pastels.

[@ew275x]

Less than being sexy or attractive, a good character design has to have Appeal and that's one of the 12 principles of animation (which all games fall into despite some AAA devs wanting to ignore that). A character can be even be considered ugly, gross or scary but still have charisma, presence and personality and be appealing.

[@phantomfenrir4976]

Very true, it also relies heavily on setting. But getting less conventionally attractive cast of characters on your supposedly AAA, next big hit, 200 million dolar hero shooter, im sorry to say it like this, but people want to see some sexy characters, both sides. As said in the video, sex sells, and you can go without it but not on this setting, and not on the scale this game wanted to reach. Its just how it is.

[@ew275x]

@@phantomfenrir4976 The genre chosen was: Hero shooter where you rely on people being attached/hooked to at least one character and 70s sci-fi which not sure younger audiences care much for and relies on exciting/over the top/distinct visuals like Star Wars or Moebius Art or something cheesier but it's so watered down in appeal to seemingly not offend anyone it ends up lacking any charm unless you just care about the gameplay.

[@Tyrany42]

This comment immediately made me think of Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. A character designed to be ugly and gross, yet who on Earth doesn’t love Yzma as a villain?

[@mrbluebell2735]

@@ew275x the grand irony is that in all trailers and press materials released by Firewalk studios never referred to the game as a Hero shooter. It's everyone else referring to it as one. Turn out being the Guardians of the Milquetoast attempting to break into a saturated game space isn't a financially viable one.

[@mckinleyostvig7135]

In a hero shooter, the characters have to either be cool, sexy, or both. You're right that every game doesn't need sexy characters, but hero shooters need to either give you a power fantasy, or a different kind of fantasy, ideally both. Genji is incredibly cool. I wish to be Genji. There are ZERO Concord characters I want to play as, and even less characters that are hot.

[@lynxdosage]

This game’s death overshadows even Hyenas, and that was never released to begin with. At least SEGA saw the writing on the wall with that game.

[@goufr3540]

Sega was smart and just scrapped Hyenas, thus the loss they took was nothing compared to what Sony did with Concord. More studios and publishers need this level of awareness, cause without it will just lead to more failure and loss.

[@billbillson6779]

Don't forget Amazon's Crucible.

[@lynxdosage]

@@billbillson6779I’ve actually never heard of Crucible. I will check that game’s development out later

[@iownall2222]

​@@goufr3540Sony were not the ones who developed it. They just bought the company and gave them money to develop their project. Sony let them have full creative control and it was the developers at fire walk that chose to ignore feedback and chose to push ahead. It had nothing to do with Sony. That's why the game director stepped down. He knows he fucked the game up by ignoring any feedback that was given.

[@elyrienvalkyr8167]

Sega realized they went woke and they narrowly avoided going broke

[@PomaReign]

Recent information shows there was a culture of toxic positivity in the company where there was a strong aversion to criticism, sounds like alot of group think and not wanting to offend your co-workers.

[@smergthedargon8974]

Got any evidence of that? I don't find it unbelievable, I'd just like to see proper proof.

[@JDReC100]

​@@smergthedargon8974 the main evidence we have right now is from a few articles (and a youtube interview) talking about the internal work culture of the game

[@huricanethreeonesix]

​@@smergthedargon8974Colin Moriarty was the original journalistic source. He used to work at ign specialising in playstation back when ign was decent. He has many sources within the industry and particularly Sony.

[@Sarazoul]

@@smergthedargon8974 A lot of game news articles are coming out with this story. (Obviously the sources will remain anonymous as they should be). But I think it's fair to say that it's not complete BS. And frankly, looking at the end product... It's obvious that this is what happened. If almost the entire gaming community saw just how bad those character designs and ideas were, then surely developers among Firewalk would have noticed it too but were ignored or shut down. Anyone with two braincells would see why this game would fail from the start, but they never changed course to adapt. So toxic positivity culture is very likely.

[@riotguards]

Literally Starlin's government, be positive or else i'll make it your problem, it's why socialist governments always end up covering up problems than actually fixing htem

[@frawliet2738]

The spanish version of eurogamer hyped the game, gave it amazing reviews, but then they erased all the articles and videos that they posted .

[@MichaelJP]

😂

[@Ubeenblind]

EU 😂

[@krixtorei]

@@Ubeenblind Did you not watch the video showcasing the portuguese eurogamer article openly criticizing the game at 17:31, which you can still find and read if you google it?

[@harkonen7227]

@@Ubeenblind ?

[@richardfan7157]

Sony's cheques cleared 😆

[@josephhelgersonjoseph6115]

This decade is really giving us live service games that are dead on arrival.

[@flaregamer64]

This game makes Anthem look like a soaring success story.

[@jyro1072]

unalive service games

[@onlywithbuts1781]

Live Service as a phrase already is plagued and cursed, i wonder why they keep doing this. Though it is refreshing seeing that single player games on the other hand get incredible support in comparison and that fills me with hope for future games again. Perhaps the whole "Online" thing will dim to obscurity cause it honestly is getting tired.

[@DeepStone-6]

​@@flaregamer64damn you're kinda right I can still boot up Anthem and play it right now 💀

[@ra6765]

​@@onlywithbuts1781 because live service generates infinite money for considerably less effort lol You can either try to make one very good single player game that lasts a long time with great replayability that takes a lot of effort or make a bare bones game with minimal content that you can think of later and could possibly generates money faster (which is the main goal of investors, the companies main concern) for a lot less effort Or better yet put a lot of effort and money into the wrong areas and resulting in a terrible game like concord 😂

[@Waffle519]

A big issue with the character designs is that they're very stylized designs being rendered in a realistic style, and that causes a big clash that makes them look like they're cosplaying as themselves.

[@thebluepaladin]

didnt realize that but yea that exactly. how am i supposed to take it seriously when it looks liek the game itself cant take itself seriously.

[@yutro213]

"realistic" 🤭

[@LachlanMartinWasTaken]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. They all just look like cosplayers hahaha

[@kevikiru]

The reason game critics handle games with a soft touch is because they need to maintain access! If they are too critical, they are afraid they will no longer be allowed to have access to previews. And when most of the sites cannot make money, they compromise on their reviews!

[@Zen-Skye]

Sacrificing customer goodwill upon the Alter of Money, eventually you run out of both.

[@Diphenhydra]

I don't know if I fully agree with this. Maybe there's a little bit of truth to this, but if you consider that giving a couple dozen copies to random companies is essentially cheap marketing, these organisations won't go away. If I recall, Alannah Pierce had said in some video from many years ago (from her experience writing for IGN) that the worry of whether they get a review copy was never a concern (though it's been a long time so I'm not 100% certain on that). Plus, we've seen people be extremely critical of PlayStation specifically and still get free goodies afterwards (in particular I think of Caddicarus who was unkind to the PlayStation Classic in 2018 and was still sent a free PS5 at launch in 2020). I think people are just reading the numbers differently. Consumers gave this a 1.8/10 while critics gave it a 6.2/10. Consumers seemingly like to stick to either 1/10 or a 10/10. Critics tend to stay in the 6/10-10/10 range. I like to think of it as a Fareignheight (don't care to spell that correctly) vs Celsius. 32 degrees means something completely different depending on which measurement you use. Similarly with games, these scores mean different things, but they both show the same feelings; the game was not good. I know the articles he read said really positive things but, let's be real. A 6/10 average among critics is an abysmal score. I would also point to the different situations people are in when their job is gaming vs literally anything else. Critics have the time to play and are not paying for the game. As much as they might say it doesn't factor into their opinion, I don't think anyone can truly shake away that bias. As a person who doesn't work in that field, I can't afford to buy a middling game. With the spare time I can give to this hobby, I want my money to be well spent. Can a critic truly evaluate any game without those factors affecting them? Maybe that's why they tend to trend more positive. If I buy Callisto Protocol for $70 (and I did, let's not talk about it) I'd be pissed at how much money I wasted. I'm likely to be a lot more emotionally impacted than the person who got it for free. I would likely give a more critical score than someone who wasn't financially impacted. Again, when the lowest score critics tend to give is a 6/10, that just means their 6 is our 1, adjust accordingly.

[@mattd5240]

Exactly! They're all corrupt and should not be trusted.

[@phantomfenrir4976]

It's what we all have known for a long time, they lower their heads to don't bite the hands that feeds them.

[@endlessemptyvoid]

It just screams of incompetence from devs, then. If you're afraid your game is gonna get bad reviews on X game website, maybe it's time to make good games? It's like those devs who cried that Larian ruined it for other devs because Baldur's Gate 3 was a good game. Now, they have to work to make good games too! The AUDACITY of Larian!!

[@gimok2k5]

I think this is a "Death of a game", where the corpse of the victim is still so warm, you could still interrogate them to ask who or what killed them.

[@SaSPonchICo]

Disco Elysium moment

[@So-4007]

@@SaSPonchICo "Communism"

[@whitewall2253]

​@@So-4007 Bad.😊

[@dimsumboy22]

>if you dont like it, dont play it >okay >WHY DID OUR GAME DIE?!

[@rezaqalam482]

Eric andre logic😂😂

[@mohammedmamdouh1058]

Then proceeds to blame the players

[@DeepStone-6]

To me Concord characters look like if you actually 3D modeled the "Corporate art style."

[@mawnkey]

Like handicapped space or bathroom door iconography handed to an AI prompt with the request "Make these in to 3-D video game characters."

[@stellviahohenheim]

They just made some guy as the game's director he was probably a nightmare to work with

[@heikkint]

Went down like: 'Hey lets use AI to make all our assets and allow our activist team members influence that AI. Cannot go wrong. Everyone will LOVE the end result no matter what!'

[@drakkenmensch]

Overwatch put through a machine wash with way too much bleach.

[@zg-it]

Hey AI, make me a video game. Make sure it looks like it was made by college educated developers with little to no real life experience.

[@nesmario123]

"it cost 400,000,000 dollars to support this game... for 12 days." -heavy tf2

[@ijustreview]

14 days I thought

[@articlered2334]

Just money laundering tbh

[@bbsugarsmurf19]

it didn't cost 400 million to make, people need to stop being so gullible , the person who started that rumor had nothing to even back up such a ridiculous claim

[@whitewall2253]

​@@bbsugarsmurf19 we don't know how much it cost because Sony won't ever admit it but we can know more or less for certain that it was a commercial failure considering the mass refunds.

[@TheRaziel08]

@@bbsugarsmurf19 stop huffing that copium and just accept that your god sony isnt infallible. 200 million for 5+ years of development and another 200 million to fix that mess from expensive outsourcing to outside studios isnt unrealistic.

[@alexandrejust4771]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2637">43:57</a> "Nearly no marketing" is exaggerated imo. They dedicated a third of a Playstation direct to it and made a whole episode for secret levels about it. Not enough might be more accurate.

[@Gravity_studioss]

Also the ridiculous amount of European culture foundations funding the project

[@Hyrule409]

I saw tons of Facebook ads for it

[@roonkolos]

"Death" of a game implies it ever had life to begin with

[@qunas101]

Stillborn game lmao

[@AlexanTheMan]

We'd call it stillborn but that title belongs to Dustborn, a game that was released close to Concord and unworthy of a Death of a Game video.

[@qunas101]

@@AlexanTheMan to be fair, Death of a Game covers multiplayer games. afaik Dustborn is singleplayer

[@AlexanTheMan]

@@qunas101 I gotcha

[@aidans1188]

@@AlexanTheManI mean dustborn is nothing compared to concord. People will still be talking about concord’s failure 5 years later, no one will even remember dustborn in 2 months.

[@IronVigilance]

Make your first video game: 😀 You end up on nerdSlayer Studios, 4 weeks later: 😦

[@enbydeadly]

provided you're talking about yourself, i really hope this doesn't discourage you from making videogames (or any other form of art), i'm sure you've got a lot of talent that was just used on the wrong thing. I look forward to seeing whatever you work on next !!

[@IronVigilance]

@enbydeadly I'm not working on anything, it was a joke lol

[@harkonen7227]

@@IronVigilance It was dead before I even heard of it :O

[@Dr.LightMarker5613]

"Nobody deserves failure." I disagree, a bad idea deserves ridicule, otherwise you wont learn.

[@Dr.LightMarker5613]

@@SoullessAIMusic I think you misunderstood me, I am saying that failure is always an option, to fail is to learn if you are willing to take the lesson. The video said no one deserves failure, and I disagree. Or have I misunderstood you?

[@PhoenicopterusR]

The issue comes with those who don't or won't learn from failure.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Sure but who decides what's a bad idea? Overwatch is super gay and so are all the ships and it was called woke even when it came out...and it was fine. Better game than this, but sometimes shit just gets crushed for no real reason (not this, this actually sucked lol)

[@Meowdab]

@@Dr.LightMarker5613 I think they're agreeing with you

[@Dr.LightMarker5613]

@@whydidyoutubeaddthis Exactly, the market, ie customer, decides what sinks or floats, and said gay chars were reasonably well done and not in your face. Also, unpopular opinion, but I think OW wouldent have been as big as it is without the rule34 art, it's pretty generic frankly. But again the market wants what it wants.

[@zan8117]

The concept art looks better than the end result.

[@Samsonfs]

To be fair that's usually the case imo

[@SkyDogDaddy]

Fantasy almost always feels better than reality.

[@stellviahohenheim]

People likes cake it's soft and fluffy and easy to eat,

[@Lcsmu]

@@Samsonfsthat is a nod for concept artists that more often than not are very awesome. Too bad game arts books are usually more expensive than the games they inspire, I would love to buy tons of them.

[@XxTrEzY07xX]

I saw that i wondered what happened with the development of the game. The original design looks much better and cooler, which makes me think some happen to change the direction to make the character more.... this..i can't think of word for their design.

[@elgoat3038]

This video came out not even a month after the games release. This is the sad state of gaming today.

[@onlywithbuts1781]

And the stark contrast of the Astrobot being so beloved really shows people are kinda tired of the online only games. Feels like everyone got a nice fill of them and it is time to go back to what really makes everyone happy, i do not doubt that online games will always find a place but not the way they are approaching it lately.

[@kyotheman69]

get woke, go broke, its not just saying, its point of life alienate the customers, you get burn

[@KeyUSeeCZ]

Gaming is ok, its arguably even better than ever before. There are so many games in each genre, that you are no longer forced to play the one that are not in your taste and still be satisfied with different ones. We should stop pretending its 1980s again where 90% of games were unplayable shovelwares.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

@@onlywithbuts1781 A lot of online games rely on constant player engagement and like we've seen before, once someone finds a game, it's harder to pull them away from that one onto another. They're unknowingly carving up the market into smaller sections until it reaches the point where it's shortening the life spans of all the games and it's unsustainable for most of them.

[@brucewayne1777]

@@kyotheman69 "woke is when make game no one wants."

[@Azrael178]

I very much disagree with the sentiment that "nobody deserves a failure". Failure is fully deserved if you do something you have no clue how to do. Especially if that something is entrusted to you by others. Now, we don't know who exactly messed up here, but its clear that a lot of people did. It is not our responsibility to figure out who. Its the responsibility of the company if they ever want to correct anything. Our role is to ensure that they are aware that a fuck up happened, and that they feel the consequences of their mistakes. It is in our best interest to make absolutely certain people who create things for us to buy know exactly what we want, and what we don't want. If they don't put in the effort to find out what that is, or to deliver on what they found out, their failure is not only unavailable, but deserved and should be mocked for others to know what to know how to avoid failure this time around. (Note, do not mock or harass the devs. Make fun of their product,. Nobody deserves to get mocked for what they are, but what someone does is a fair game)

[@flakproof]

TF2 characters are hotter

[@Calvin_Coolage]

Always have been.

[@captainautism8221]

tick tock heavy like a brinks truck

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Lol

[@CombatWombatSeanSpencer]

Must be talking about the pyro.

[@nestorgamer9746]

Yeah

[@tenshi9397]

Concord should be a lesson not to let your ego blind you that you would block any criticism and "negativity". Most people think the designs look awful and the fact that nobody listens to the feedback is just straight up delusional.

[@Svafne]

It really just looks like American football great.. -_-

[@kyotheman69]

these clowns never learn, why Hollywood in the shitter so is comic book industry, stop hiring activists

[@mikoto7693]

@@i_like_lemonsI’ve heard the same information. The toxic positivity and refusal to take criticism. I think the lead character artist called the playerbase “talentless freaks.”

[@Muizemullard414]

@tenshi9397 its because dei hires get preferential treatment, nobody wants to call them out because it can negatively impact their careers. Some developers have even publicly said if your critize their work that your ist or a bigot.. if they are confident enough to say that publicly what do you think they are saying In private to co-workers? They probably have the same mindset..dei is a real issue even if people dont want to admit how big it really is..

[@Kaikirith]

@@Muizemullard414 take off your tinfoil hat and go outside

[@justinsuministrado]

UPDATE: Sony decided to shut down Firewalk Studios due of Concord's biggest major flop that shattered Firewalk Studios' reputation.

[@chicolopes1928]

Toxic positivity and using "trolls" as a broad shield from any criticism will just lead to more and more fails like this

[@rara3538]

I'm sure it wasn't the DEI hiring practices. You know I'm sure hiring people who aren't the most qualified for the job wasn't the actual problem, as everyone likes to pretend systemic racism against white people (DEI) doesn't exist.

[@anon2427]

Hopefully it does. Fails like this deserve the spotlight. These insecure people will continue to try corrupting culture and ideals which they could not achieve until there is either a boiling point or nothing left. Postmodern thought is inherently deconstructive, but you can only break down so much until you’re left with nothing but rubble.

[@youwayo]

Disney Star Wars in a nutshell :P

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Yes. They won't learn from what they fucked up. Unfortunately anyone that calls a game woke was gonna always search for something to complain about lol

[@mafiousbj]

It´s so sad that the same tactic is being used by political parties where I live and around the world. Hope we don´t end up like Concord.

[@valettashepard909]

My question is why did the trailer tease a completely different game from what was actually presented, gameplay-wise? The trailer prompts one to think of a heist or extraction game, not a hero shooter. Plus the promise of a weekly story cutscene isn’t really a good draw, nor is it particularly connected to the gameplay. Hero shooters in general are kinda not great from a game/story perspective since the characters have to exist in a narrative stasis, not really being able to develop, change allegiances, perma-die, become disabled, all because they need to remain in a state where they’re ready to fight cyclical battle number 77545667633389075. And the next million after that. It’s why overwatch having a PVE mode was a thing people were hyped about; a chance to see the cast in a variety of situations that weren’t another multiplayer match. And yeah, some will say they don’t need a story, or that the story is the multiplayer matches, but i feel that to be a cop-out, an excuse for laziness in writing. A character without an arc is not much of a character at all, and this is a genre dependent on characters. They need a reason to be doing what they’re doing.

[@theone01299-z]

As of the time of this writing, Firewalk studios has been shut down by Sony after the failure of Concord.

[@Larry]

The character designs have the same problem Hyenas had last year, They entirely based them on what they are, not who they are. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with making characters attractive. This is a commercial medium, it's not what you want, it's what makes the customers give you the most money.

[@smugshrug]

Well said.. I couldn't tell you a single thing about any characters from Concord. Entirely forgettable from first glance.

[@azureth9544]

​@@smugshrug Well there's Blueberry, thrashcan and... that one soldier in football gear. Few aliens. And that one asian chick who's kinda pretty, which is why she ended up in every youtube thumbnail ever.

[@Jordan-Ramses]

The game is beautiful if you think vomit is beautiful. Why is everything olive and orange? Seriously.

[@hefoxed]

The what isn't the issue, it's the missing who. As BG3 and other diverse games have shown, having diverse what's aren't the issue -- it's the missing depth. If they were random white guys, they'd still be bad do to the missing "who"/still missing depth. T Disappointed in both @larry and NerdSlayerStudios for liking the comment. Welp, two less channels to watch for me.

[@thejunkmanlives]

@@hefoxed thats what i try to tell people. when you design around gender/sexuality/race you get a flat character because no real person is that shallow.

[@TheMinidow]

The characters really struggle to tell you about their playstyle at a glance. Compare them to dirty bomb, because it's reasonably similar, phoenix and stoker at a glance you can tell who's the medic and who's the fire bomber. Concord none of the medics look like medics, and the fire character uses marbles and a crossbow, with nothing in her design indicating anything to do with fire...

[@bronzetrophy2171]

The only thing the fire mage type character had that indicated that she bends fire are the really out of place, bright yellow retro sneakers! Everywhere else on her design is a purple-ish, pink, and grey, but the yellow sticks out like a sore thumb.

[@joseaca1010]

holy shit, you are right, you show me this horrid lineup and i couldnt tell whos the medic at a glance, WHAT THE FUCK!?

[@bronzetrophy2171]

@joseaca1010 jabali looks more like a marksman than a healer. daw is even worst!

[@joseaca1010]

@@bronzetrophy2171 daw with his giantic hitbox, looks more like a tank

[@JohnDoe-ug3su]

Gotta disagree on that, look at old Paladins, many of their chars dont look like their class But the design is interesting and nice to look at

[@blank.e5plus]

What really gets me is that people pretend that Bungie was a good company, it's not there was like three guys there That made it happen and they're long gone

[@basillah7650]

The people that started it 100% not woke either with the jokes they pulled in their game back then that pushed censorship even back then to its limits.

[@22freedom33]

The actual death of Concord happened about 20 seconds after the reveal trailer when the spokesman said "Concord will be a 5v5 hero shooter", every streamer at that exact moment went "oh, yeah no this will fail"

[@PlatinumAltaria]

Not even Overwatch has managed to survive unscathed in that market, idk why every two-bit developer thinks they're gonna suddenly make a billion dollars on the same idea.

[@osirisatot19]

I had that exact response, I was hoping it was some kind of RPG or something.

[@Bert439]

Paladins still survives!

[@Kittysune12]

what about marvel rivals ?

[@MyFeuerFrey]

@@Bert439 The literal last developers working on it have left by now. The game is basically on life support.

[@JLM-y5g]

"Started by ex-Bungie devs and affiliates." I see. That explains a lot.

[@Marinealver]

Not the Grizzled Ancients back when it was a real company

[@ew275x]

Good old "Bungie Magic"

[@Kittysune12]

bet it's the same guys who made curse of osiris

[@alexsynthesis]

Are those ex bungie devs from the halo days? Or destiny days is what I want to know lol

[@JLM-y5g]

@@alexsynthesis I don't think any of the Halo devs would have willingly worked on this trainwreck, so by process of elimination...

[@ValleyoftheKings64]

Concorde Airlines Costa Concordia Concord the video game Notice a pattern?

[@chopper8209]

“Why don't they like it? We spent 400 million dollars on this!!!”

[@onlywithbuts1781]

Without a joke this is how they see the world, given the toxic positivity i absolutely believe it went down exactly this way.

[@kyotheman69]

normal players and fans aren't their "modern audience" that's why, make something we don't' like we up right reject it.

[@mawnkey]

@@onlywithbuts1781 I'm sure I'm not the first or last person to say that the modern pathological positivity trend is the thing I absolutely _hate_ most about modern society.

[@stellviahohenheim]

​@@kyotheman69watch the video first before commenting dude that's the least of their problems.

[@mawnkey]

@@amalekedomite Notice the word "pathological".

[@polymphus]

I DO think you can have a round/fat character look right in a shooter. I don't think they did it successfully, but The Heavy from TF2 doesn't feel out of place on the battlefield. Like, the issue isn't with characters round and fat, I just don't think they executed it very well in Concord. The Heavy is built like a powerlifter, he's fat but he also strong, he looks *tough*, and it makes perfect sense that a dude like that would have a lot of health, move slowly, and be lugging a big heavy machine gun around.

[@oxolotleman7226]

Gridlock in siege fits pretty well in game. She is far from the most attractive operator in siege but she wasn't intended to be, she's a big brute. My only gripe with her is that she has a run of the mill assault rifle and a magfed saw. I think she could've used a punchier, slow fire rate, big lmg similar to tachanka's.

[@invalidcreations]

Roadhog as well, the character is designed as a big chunky powerhouse that can take hits and the character design very obviously reflects this.

[@jonathandear4914]

honestly Daw's design was so generic i thought they made a fat version of the protag from Star Wars Outlaws when i first saw it

[@leithaziz2716]

Not a shooter, but Guilty Gear Strive is a fighting game that introduces a fat guy who looks badass and has a cool attitude: Goldlewis Dickinson.

[@SeanSMST]

Concord failed to see the reason how and why people relate to characters like themselves. Everyone has issues, some a major issue more than others like being lonely/antisocial, overweight, stoner or alcoholic (addict), that a player seeing a badass character with their issue and overcoming it, it's appealing af. An overweight person wants to be seen as Roadhog, not Concord's version. I could do the same with other examples, but hell I don't know what Concord's versions are 🤣. Point is, people wanna relate. It says a lot when a game makes such bland characters when really trying to force relatability.

[@HolyNatanil]

You forgot the strange toxic positivity in the workspace, No one was allowed to say anything negative about the game.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

That's super cringe

[@regalvas]

He does mention it here

[@Mariobro4]

This flop is so epically bad, our grandchildren will hear of it.

[@NotAGoodUsername360]

No joke, reports suggest this a flop on the scale of cruise ship sinking on its maiden voyage in terms of lost money.

[@alvianekka80]

​@@NotAGoodUsername360 Costa Concordia (cruise ship) Concorde (airplane) Concord (video game) There's a pattern here, somewhere.

[@DracoVampire786]

Allegedly this game costed 400$ million to make, definitely smells like a case of bad pre development.

[@diestormlie]

Anthem writ larger.

[@Shnap1337]

I thought you were gonna say money laundering

[@jamesbyrd3740]

Do you actually believe that? The source is literally "trust me bro".

[@petezarole]

​@@jamesbyrd3740 true, the number gets higher every week lol. Still believe the 100-200m number first announced tho, that seems much more reasonable considering

[@vjbd2757]

@@jamesbyrd3740 It's on Sony's ball to disprove that budget. Though they still lost hundreds of millions of dollars despite that.

[@IEgOImkAwx]

I have to be real, whichever individual was responsible for greenlighting the char designs in design docs needs to be evaluated carefully going forward with any authoritative role. It is genuinely exceptional how bad it is.

[@euowol]

Zenless zone zero & helldivers 2 proved that “over saturated market” is totally a BS take and a shit excuse. There is always room for a new game if it is fun.

[@MarcsXA]

Tbf, ZZZ is from the same company that made Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail; Helldivers 2 is, well, the *sequel* of a known game so I don't think this applies on this case, at least not 100%.

[@joshuabonesteel2303]

​@MarcsXA helldivers 2 does. There is a good chunk of that player base that didn't come in from the original. That game drew people in because it looks fantastic and fun.

[@MarcsXA]

@@joshuabonesteel2303 And that's why I said "at least not 100%".

[@EngieMak]

Too bad Concord have nothing to stand out compared to the it peer except, ironically, its ugly ass art style but that doesnt make anyone want to play, the gameplay isn't anything to write home was the final nail.

[@dracomalfoyvevo]

This video had more views in an hour already then the peak player count of concord

[@stellviahohenheim]

Naming it with a product that crashed and burn is totally hilarious lol

[@SapunMan]

than*

[@Gravity_studioss]

83 😭🙏

[@lloydpatam4189]

And the studio is gone as well.

[@hannesbaum9318]

Thanks for focusing on the gaming jornalist side of things, concord was the perfect example for showing the problems of this part of the industry!

[@MrDaros89]

If GamerGate didn't wake people up to the corruption of journolism nothing will.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Everyone but the developers saw this plane crashing from a mile away. "Talentless hacks" indeed.

[@mcslothalot]

Most devs working on something are aware about how the game is going. But as just a dev you don't really have a choice. What would you do as a programmer? Its not like you can do something about it. Also at some point its too late to change the game. You just finish it to get it out in the hopes it makes money somehow.

[@dakkanTM]

First half of video was great, second half was arrogant and dismissive.

[@dickpays]

it wasn't

[@NemaDraws]

A game that lasted 2 weeks and getting a almost 50min DOAG vid is crazy 💀💀💀

[@alexsynthesis]

He was probably already working on this video when the first teaser released 😂

[@muffinoffun1843]

>People saying not celebrate a game failing Fuck that noise lmao. This game looked like garbage from the get go, and this shit deserved every lost dollar lol

[@glens2019]

Let the industry know we don't want this.

[@Muizemullard414]

Yeah just because you created something doesn't mean that suddenly im supposed to respect it.. i took a crap this morning am i supposed to get a standing ovation for it? And its not like they were doing it for just art or passion they were getting paid for it, they get benefits and its whole purpose was to make money.. im sick of treating some developers as special little babies, most people that mess up get fired and we never weep for those people but its different because they make games? Give me a break..

[@absboodoo]

@sharpester7277 DBE still hurts my soul

[@nyanchat2657]

to the people saying this... cry about it

[@Windwalker88]

​@@Jecoopsterhonesty is important in a relationship 😆

[@pandosham]

As a gay man a character who you dont know is gay unless its told to you is better than stereotypes

[@SinsOfOrigin]

Kung Jin (from mkx) is a perfect example of how to write a gay character. It doesn't become his entire personality, but it gives his character some depth and uniqueness to him

[@heheheiamasupahstarslam5397]

yeah I've meet non binary people at college as a board game club president it took multiple meetings for me to find out, only because i forgot their name and used the wrong pronoun. they are just normal people. same for the other LGBT+ individuals i met at club. If you can sit down for multiple hours and play board games without finding out, games can represent them subtly and be fine.

[@whydidyoutubeaddthis]

Almost always, but it's also fine to show like one person being obviously gay since thats just how life is

[@HolyApplebutter]

But how are we to easily market our game as having gay characters if it's hard to tell they're gay?

[@heheheiamasupahstarslam5397]

@HolyApplebutter sadly market teams forget that they need to advertise gameplay. if I wanted a narrative or story expirence (the only time a character's personalityout weighs gameplay) I'd read a book which I often do.

[@Flaris]

The biggest takeaway here is just the absolute failure of modern gaming "journalism." Next to no one was honest about this game when it was set to come out. They all did their jobs as advertisers for Sony and ignored the apparent issues with Concord. This is why people aren't turning to these sites anymore. You can't trust them. And this game failed for a multitude of reasons. It just didn't do anything special versus it's competition. And honestly the designs were terrible and told you nothing about the characters. Sony thought this would be a blockbuster, but it only ended up being a huge loss.

[@Brepnir]

My take on Concord is that instead of a 5v5 Hero shooter i would've loved if it was a Character action Single player action FPS where you switch characters from your Crew Build in real time and use them correctly depending on the situation like facing an specific enemy akin Doom Eternal or unlock new areas ala Metroidvania.

[@harpsdesire4200]

I am the only one who DOESN'T hate pvp games? Like did everyone just collectively decide that pvp games are automatically garbage?

[@jvg7498]

Hey can you check out Wild Bastards real quick? If you don't mind

[@PlatinumAltaria]

You mean if it was literally anything else other than what it is? Yes I agree, that would be way better.

[@RexcorJ]

Sounds like a new Agents of Mayhem, which would have been sick.

[@Brepnir]

@@harpsdesire4200 me neither but like i said this is just my take of what could've been more unique and attractive to players that might have a fatigue yk

[@Larry]

Also, that Lennox guy is part dragon? I honestly thought from the design he was some sort of alien cactus creature!

[@volkan2097]

Nah thats just you

[@CentiZen]

Hopefully this is a strong a message we can send as gamers that we are just done with these uninspired, design-by-comittee, live service titles that just serve to build a portfolio instead of actually, you know, making a fun game.

[@aidans1188]

I mean I hope the big companies actually learn the right lessons from concord’s failure but I have a creeping feeling that they probably will only take the wrong advice from it..

[@Shlepp]

@@aidans1188how much do you want to bet that they’ll disregard all criticism as “hate” from a small group of “bigots”?

[@EastyyBlogspot]

To quote John Hammond "we spared no expense" Unfortunately i am not sure where though

[@mawnkey]

When you wonder where the money went it's time to check for laundering and embezzlement.

[@Crase1986]

The funniest thing about Concord is the neigh-universal delight from the gaming community to see it end up such a colossal, unprecedented failure.

[@DOSFrost]

"Budget of 150m" I'm sure the team wished it were that small given the results

[@deathshead556]

“Sony these days lacking in the shooter realm” Me looking at my copy of RESISTANCE Fall of Man on my shelf: “Aye you were gone too soon for us, but at least you didn’t live to see yourself turned into this.”

[@richardfan7157]

All Sony has to do is remaster the Resistance and Killzone games and put them on PC too. But no, chasing a trend with live service games is way better according to Sony logic.

[@Labbazz]

Me looking at my MAG Box ;(

[@PhoenicopterusR]

@@richardfan7157 it's a crime how many games Sony sits on and ignores.

[@jacktheripper7935]

​@@PhoenicopterusR "BuT wE DOn'T hAvE IPs!!!" - Sony

[@HolyApplebutter]

Yet.

[@Ultrox007]

15% dislikes? I must've missed the part of the video people are mad at. edit: Ah, it's the handwaving dismissal of DEI critiques. edit 2: On the rare chance you read this comment, I do enjoy your videos, but must add my own two cents on the DEI/"woke" aspect. I think it's people getting fatigued with agitprop (noun; political propaganda, generally communistic, in art and media), most people don't know we have a more accurate name for it, so they just call it "woke" or "political" which gets well poisoning backlash in turn "but Deus Ex and Crusader Kings are political games, why do you like those?!" My belief is when discussing these topics, we need to better separate modern theming from propaganda.

[@Ultrox007]

It's a combination of "Agitation" and "Propaganda", as the point was (for communists when the term originated) to spread propaganda through agitating means - back then meaning to create very shocking and risque artworks, vulgarity and lewdness were common tropes.

[@uhoh6706]

It’s like this game was made just for you

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

lmao

[@imfinishedgrinding638]

​@@nerdSlayerstudioss it's free KZbin content

[@cryosightgaming]

​@@InciniumVGC 😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀

[@mawnkey]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss: "It's me! I'm MODERN AUDIENCES!"

[@fedupN]

@@MarioWendorf The point was how it died so quick, since Nerdslayer does this little show "Death of a Game." Please mate, keep up, else you sound like one of those "It was DEI!" chuds who lack any sort of critical thought process.

[@Poppenheimer69]

Your take on DEI reminds me of Upper Echelon's. Can be summed up as "It's only about money, I swear! Also, if you disagree with me you're crazy and mean!". DEI certainly didn't cause as much harm to the game as everything else did. DEI is just a part of wrapping/presentation. At worst it's one of the red flags. And it's not even a red flag because of what DEI stands for, it just shows what groups/suits are involved and serves as a good tell about who will control the flow of cash and creatives. Still, it's not as simple or benign as you present it. If you want to talk about it seriously - do so. Don't prance around like a bundle of sticks and waste our time on your jestery spergouts. It's obvious that you ridicule one side of the argument while being all nice and sweet to the other. Skip that part of the performance and talk facts if you genuinely want to come off impartial and level-headed. You muddle the waters by mixing very reasonable statements and simultaneously insulting a good part of your audience and concealing various information regarding DEI. Takes and tactics like this are why centrists(yes, you are) are seen as spineless worms. I was patient enough to watch about 2 3rds of the video, but I am not about to waste any more of my time on yet another creator who behaves like an industry plant. Doubt it matters to you, considering your behaviour, but I will now be blocking your channel from my recommendations, as I am not interested in being lectured by yet another twitter-safe coward, ready to attack his audience to save his pasty behind.

[@suuriz]

It is the money

[@RobinLundqvist]

@@suurizMONEY motivated the character designs? It's like we're not living on the same planet.

[@dretchlord873]

CriticalArt, a self-professed bean counter "finance guy", made better designs then the entire art team for this game. The art team has no excuse. When a failure happens 400 million times (assuming a dollar per hour) then that's not incompetence

[@Tarranium]

>Constantly insists that DEI wasn't the reason why the game failed`, and insults people who argue that it is >Third of the video is arguing that DEI was the sole reason the game failed What did he mean by this?

[@basillah7650]

Means he stole everything else in the video from other people after the first part of the video.

[@yuscilfer1429]

"Pretty much guaranteed that it wasn't going to launch on the Xbox" Xbox: Whew! Dodged!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

lol

[@Alfonso88279]

@@judgedrekk2981 This "woke" narrative says more about you than about those games.

[@midori_the_eldritch]

​@judgedrekk2981 nearly nobody cares about your culture war. Most people just want good entertainment and art, and most people just want to see themselves in there entertainment. A more diverse cast makes ot easier to get more people attached, and expands the kinds of stories you can tell, and in an era of reued plots new is interesting. I have yet to see a game people clamed was killed from "woke" that wasn't fundamentally poorly made, and using it as a crutch or deflection from its quality.

[@Joric78]

@@judgedrekk2981 "Our culture"? The world isn't America. You can all just bugger off with that shit.

[@brucewayne1777]

@@judgedrekk2981 The only culture war here is the one in your head. You seem to think "Everything I don't like is woke." The only people who even use that word are batshit right wingers who get angry that gay people have the audacity to exist.

[@pedroneves4465]

To give you an idea of how much money 400 million dollars is, you could operate a full-fledged F1 team for 3 full seasons for that kind of money. I'm talking about EVERYTHING in a 1000-plus personnel operation. R&D, wind tunnel hours, advanced CFD models, build costs for both cars and spare parts, associated travel costs for cargo, equipment and team members, and the salaries and benefits of every single employee of the team except for the drivers and maybe the team principal. What I'm saying is, Sony could realistically run the Red Bull F1 team for a good while for that sort of cash. But instead, we got this...

[@GabidenZhazylbekov]

Even most blockbusters don't have such budget.

[@osirisatot19]

To put it into perspective, 400 million dollars is also half of what it cost to hire Robert Downey Jr. to play Doctor Doom.

[@preston7309]

holy shit, they could have spent that money with their other IPs but instead they made a gamble with a shitty copy of overwatch

[@MrDaros89]

I could have bought 150.000 liters of milk for that kind of money.

[@AL2009man]

Given they got Gran Turismo IP, Sony could unironically do it.

[@sneakyrune]

I usually agree with many of your points in your videos, and I do here as well. That said, I believe it’s crucial to acknowledge that DEI/‘Woke’ (whatever we’re calling it now) played a significant role in Concord's collapse and its kind of disappointing that you trying to wave it away like it didn’t have any impact at all. While it wasn’t the sole reason, it had a major impact. This wasn’t just about poor character design or bad creative choices-it went deeper, into Firewalk Studios itself. Reports suggest a culture of toxic positivity, where developers weren’t equipped to handle criticism, largely due to DEI initiatives. These initiatives have created an environment where anyone with differing views feels silenced, fearing job loss for speaking up. This isn’t only affecting game design, but any tech industry or the movie industry as well. People are growing tired of being told what to believe and shamed if they don’t share similar views.

[@stevebl9265]

This game needs to be immortalized forever in all forms of knowledge from digital to paper. "Those who do not learn from their history are doomed to repeat it."

[@basillah7650]

Not their money wasted they do not care all proud of the garbage they should not have been paid at all that would hit them where they care.

[@12isaac00]

"Game journos getting figuratively hit with a metaphorical lead pipe" is one of my favourite video genres. Also why does everything looks inflatable?, I thought the green guy's jacket was an outlier but many characters have inflatable tubes in some part of their outfit. Makes them look like Michelin creatures.

[@anhilliator1]

As you said, the reason so many gamers have a particular distaste for DEI and the likes is because, generally speaking, it tends to result in those aspects being over-emphasized _to the point where the quality of the rest of the game suffers,_ often in story and mechanics. Add in the fact that SBI and some studios like this have a nasty tendency to attack fans online (see "talentless hacks") and it results in the alienation of the fanbase. And, as you said, a major issue with their characters is that they fail to make their characters _actual characters,_ often resulting in them feeling flat at best.

[@alexsawicki]

The problem with DEI is that it will ALWAYS lead to that kind of problem. DEI *requires* focusing on group traits, instead of individualism. That's baked into DEI. DEI is also based on the Equity Fallacy. "Equity" itself is based on the idea that unequal outcomes among groups unequivocally proves unequal opportunity among those same groups... Or that it proves discrimination... What exactly it proves sometimes changes, depending on who you ask. This is a fallacy. The reality is that unequal outcomes among groups proves absolutely nothing at all. Correlation does not equal causation. Individuals within a group, when given freedom, will ALWAYS have different outcomes, even when given the exact same opportunities. Equity is a LIE. It is NOT rooted in reality, and in fact, reality proves it wrong. The only way to even attempt to make equal outcomes happen is by taking away ALL freedom from individuals. It doesn't work, and makes everyone miserable. A focus on the group, over the individual will always, always suck, in any context (games, other artistic mediums, and even politics). It's corrosive and is an idea that needs to be resigned to the dustbin of history. Now, sure, it's possible that games/art/whatever can overcome the negatives of DEI, but DEI will *always* be a negative. Also, of course, the problems with DEI can be made worse with incompetent developers... And obviously games can have be bad outside of DEI.

[@Wolvie181]

People don't realize that a character's name and design help gamers show what abilities that character has. This is why character design is important for a hero shooter.

[@jack90054]

One of the few good things that came out of the Concord debacle is that all the videos on character design helped more people realize that, despite all its flaws as a game, Overwatch has outstanding character design.

[@Wolvie181]

@@jack90054 it definitely does.

[@thejunkmanlives]

important is an understatement. its one of the main hooks of the game. hero shooters just like fighting games live and die on their cast. its night and day when you play a game with a character that you gel with. your more connected to the action.

[@Wolvie181]

@@thejunkmanlives indeed.

[@phantomfenrir4976]

​@@thejunkmanlives This. It's a HERO!!!!! shooter, you should care about Heroes. They should be likeable, charismatic and attractive to some degree, its important to make the players want to be attached to them.

[@Tsuki0ni]

I hate pandering. It ruins movies, games, stories in general. That's Dustborn's problem. From what I hear, most people didn't like Concord because the character designs were super unappealing in general and the game itself was fine but didn't do anything different than more popular, free titles. DEI was just a good scapegoat. Older badass ladies are so easy to get right. And everyone loves a good friend-shaped boi. Also gumbo IS great.

[@basillah7650]

Pandering to people that never are customers are the problem legit pandering to woke drug addicts that spend all their money on drugs they not got time for games.

[@saschaberger3212]

Where were the modern audience to save the game? I mean Concord was made from the ground up for them without hijacking a standing IP. Are you telling me they don't exist? Mild shock

[@spinyslasher6586]

This must be a new record for a game becoming DOA shovelware.

[@nineviaaware4910]

Hyenas cheated with that speedrun and somehow died -1 days after launch (the game was only available to play as beta)

[@darkroninmarvel]

You can't spell ignorance without IGN

[@Mojaveknight17]

The ugly characters did affect this game.

[@Valkyrie77]

Oh, it did. It really did.

[@aidans1188]

Unappealing character designs, uninteresting characters and lore, another live service shooter in 2024, plus a little culture war seasoning ultimately resulted in concord. Classic death by a thousand cuts kinda deal with this game.

[@aheahe7943]

i would argue that it wasn't really the characters being ugly but the intention behind the characters being ugly. deadlock having 100x the players concord ever could, proves that. characters can be ugly and still work when it's stylized that way. when your style is realistic and you purposely choose to make every character look like a homeless person who happened to find a gun on the ground in order to push a politically correct agenda, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the game failed. it was obvious to everyone what they were doing.

[@neegamind]

​​@@aheahe7943corcord character design made me want to gouge my eyes. In games like palworld we can customize our characters to look like abomination but theres something to concord that made me feel repulsive.

[@Mojaveknight17]

@@aheahe7943 it wasn't the only reason or the main reason but it didn't help.

[@gonzalosozzani5824]

Concord didnt have a chance... Destiny is somewhat forgotten... Titanfall was misunderstood... Overwatch is being keep alive by the p*rn... But TF2... TF2 Is forever.

[@SandwichGamesHeavy]

"WE ARE GOING TO LIVE FOREVER!" - Soldier TF2

[@SandwichGamesHeavy]

@@metalllich3493 no, dude, what? It has more than 40,000 players playing it right now

[@SandwichGamesHeavy]

@@metalllich3493 dude, go back to playing valorant or league of legends if you think like that. There are NO bots, I repeat: NO BOTS in TF2 by the time being. Furthermore: valve keeps banning cheaters and bots from the game, thanks to #FixTF2 Go find some friends to play this free game with, I guess... "Dead Game" actually means this: when the steam charts are saying "0 players online", or "1 player(s) - last hour peak"

[@jakestaheli8532]

​@@metalllich3493only about half of them are idle bots. If 20,000 concurrent players equals "dead game" to you, you need to get your eyes checked. Also, what games do you play, if tf2 "plays like shit"?

[@MultiCommissar]

Naw, this has *everything* to do with DEI. First Descendant? Boring gameplay loop, generic looking enemies and absolutely dogshit story. But guess what? People like Bunny's ass, so they gladly play it.

[@FlyinTonite]

When rule34 artists draw your characters with even more clothes, you made some uggos.

[@anyonmousse]

How funny is it that KZbinrs probably made more money off this game than the devs

[@Coconut-219]

More people watched the video than bought concord.

[@kyliethelittlespider-mangirl94]

8 years and no one saw these problems until actual smart people pointed them out!? My ass is an 8 year progress.

[@original4046]

Concord out here making every youtuber do overtime time

[@original4046]

Damn you typos!!!!

[@DamianRavenhold]

I like to think that this video came out so soon after Concord released (and died) was because NerdSlayer saw the announcement trailer and went “this looks like something I am going to cover, better get started now”

[@johno1544]

Costing $400 million and only making $1 million in sales that they refunded has to be the biggest flop in media history. No movie or game comes close to that level of failure

[@volkan2097]

Did you hear about the first quadruple A game skull and bones yet?

[@thatguywesmaranan]

the failure of concord is not just damning evidence of the atrocious state of the video games industry, but also an indictment against all the out-of-touch games "journalists"...

[@voobooguru3046]

The character designs seems so odd. The faces are in a realistic style, yet the bodies have the proportions of characters from Gotham City Imposters.

[@ScubaShark8857]

Concord sure did bring people together… just not in the way the devs wanted…

[@salmark9080]

This failure needs to be well documented and never memory holed

[@RIlianP]

You know there are old animated films from the former Eastern Block that critiqued old soviet style of architecture by creating truly interesting and imaginative building, then slowly chipping away all soul and character out of it, by passing the blueprints trough different departments, till the final product is just boring rectangle with windows and doors, and serving its purpose but nothing more (a metaphor how the state viewed the individual, also) this is what modern AAA games are like, they are technically games with their core elements there, but no soul, no character, no spark behind it.

[@lawrl777]

kinda disappointed, i started watching DoaG for well-researched stories of how a game was developed behind the scenes, not just your opinions about the opinions of other reviewers

[@TruePatriotGaming]

More people have talked about the death of Concord than people who played Concord. 💀

[@johnDoe-eq8bo]

This game's failure is legitimately one for the history books. I don't think there has ever been a bigger flop in gaming history. Not even E.T. comes close to this. If games were still sold on physical media there wouldn't be big enough dessert to bury this one lmfao

[@brainstormsurge154]

So afraid to offend anyone they ended up offending everyone. Even the ones that don't admit it since their livelihood is on the line.

[@Zanryu1337]

As a game designer, and this goes especially for Multiplayer-PvP only games, you have to have the ability to predict the future and the trends of it. This is one such case where it wasn't applied.

[@polarbear3262]

I will probably be called all kinds of names and nerdSlayer would probably call me anti-DEI or whatever but I have to write few things. It's ok most people won't even read this because no one reads long comments anyway. Oh, also I wouldn't be surprised to be labeled as far right even though I have nothing to do with USA politics as I am from a Balkan country in Europe and politics here function very different. Concord did fail mostly because of the characters, DEI and the way the developers addressed their public. You keep repeating that marketing was the problem but then you give an example of Deadlock and in the past dota, league etc, games that had no marketing and yet look at the player base of Deadlock. Without any clear vision they could have had marketing all over the place, just like Homefront did back in the days and it would still bust. Then you say sex sells but again Deadlock has the same type of characters, most of them are robots, buttoned up, not sexual at all and yet people play them. And yes, most people that play know that there is LGBTQ character, its Pocket. If people are so dedicated to characters they play most of them will read the lore. Difference is its not pushed as a main thing, it doesn't shame any other group its not a whole identity of a champion. 90% of people who say go woke go broke or DEI game don't have anything against gay, lesbian or whatever. They have a problem how it is implemented in games and that it is forced into already established franchises and already established characters are changed to fit the modern narrative. People are tired of so many games, shows, films being about who is gay who is using what pronounces. They just want to enjoy a good and quality story. We had LGBTQ in video games long time ago and no one cared. Because if it was introduced it was done either subtly through some dialogue or it was done where it had impact on the story, with good reason. Just like most people, I don't go out to the store to buy some milk and stop 20 times telling random people if I prefer vagina or penis or do I identify as a demon. Concord did just that, it was a game that didn't stand out in any other way then trying to cater "modern" audience. They called people who offered genuine help talentless freaks. Over and over we hear if you don't like it don't play it. So people finally started to do just that. Majority of players are just normal guys and girls. That is a reason why DEI likes way more to take over already established franchise that audience cares about then to make something from ground up. Because when they do something from ground up it ends up being filled with anger and hate and ugly characters without any meaningful story that resonates with most people and people don't play it. Concord and Dustborn are perfect examples. And I mean in your video you said that pretty much yourself. And yes there are idiots on both sides that scream loudly. Difference is that one side is accepted by media while other side as soon as you point out legit criticism or problems you are labeled as far right or something worse. No one has a problem with a women giving a game review like you did a little jab. Most of women don't like shit games either (shocking I know). They also don't like poor stories where one female is for no reason just more powerful, smart and kicks ass of 10x bigger dudes without proper explanation, character exploration, when she revels in humiliating others etc. And that is what today is seen as a "powerful" woman by media. Not how smart she is, not her story, not how much she cares about something or someone, feminine traits are even seen as a negative things in a female characters. In short when someone says DEI characters or story most of the time they mean how forceful and shallow it is made or that it is destroying already established lore, not that anyone has problems with a gay robot.

[@oriongold395]

You've just put my thoughts into words. Yeah, there are going to be bigots unfortunately. But with the way DEI has been implemented these last few years, I just don't think it's a viable option to immediately dismiss legitimate criticism regarding this topic. Hell, there are left-leaning people out there who actually hate how DEI is implemented but some of them wouldn't be able to voice their opinions on it or else they'll be seen as a "category traitor". It certainly doesn't help that the people behind the force implementation of DEI will hide behind it as a shield from well-founded criticism and just angrily bark at them.

[@tarnetskygge]

I found some of his points a little dismissive too, but tbh I think he's just tired of the bad faith culture warriors who always try to take over these discussions to push their particular side's political activism. It's unfortunate that genuine people sometimes get caught in the crossfire but the fault ultimately lies with those perpetuating the culture war (I don't need to name them, but certain youtubers are at the top of that list).

[@polarbear3262]

@@nikenit Lol yeah I read it. I find it funny that he doesn't think companies receive money in exchange for DEI when the information is out in the open. Doesn't matter if Sony is under USA or Japan. It is a company that will use funds that they can. Tik Tok is Chinese and the launched a trash app on the west while their version is strictly educational and promotes country values etc. Same with how games and films will be all in pride logos and put "diversity" in their products but they don't want to stand behind those convictions when launching products into China, gay characters are not gay anymore and logo is no longer rainbow colour. Thats why I assumed I will also be labeled as a hater or far right or whatever the term is today. But hey, in the end the market shows what it shows.

[@polarbear3262]

@@tarnetskygge I mean we all are tbh. I also just want to enjoy cool games with good mechanics, good stories etc. Thing is we will get more and more people "rebelling" because of dismissive stance towards most gamers for the last 20 years. I have nothing against games made specifically for LGBTQ community. But it is obvious that those loudest for those games don't even play games. Because those projects keep failing. I only have a problem when they take things like Star Wars, Star Trek and start changing everything to suit DEI content. Same with games. If they actually made an effort to make interesting characters and stories ... not just a token things. People are just tired of being called nazi, privileged, cis whatever and all other stuff because for example they don't want to listen about who is what sexuality ALL the time.

[@Coconut-219]

"Noticing things is outlawed"

[@etherealhatred]

The problem that i have seen people talk about regarding wokeness and the characters designs is that they all look like the Hollywood lgbt character they always do on movies, games and series, ugly, flamboyant and with 0 style and it's sad because not only people outside of the collective can see how horrendous they are, people inside the community ALSO HATE THESE CHARACTERS, because it's a caricature of what they represent with "be yourself" and so on, it's so tiring

[@AlwayzFresh]

Is it just me or does this feel like The Academy Awards of Death of a Game.

[@MaterielPneumatique]

I mostly agree with your take on the DEI stuff. But calling people dumb is the worse thing you can do if you try to change their opinion, and it's even worse if you claim to be smarter than them. But, maybe your goal is not to convince anyone.

[@Hwarming]

It's so hard to have an actual conversation about character design because one side is yelling DEI Woke, the other side is yelling Gooner Incel Transphobe. Like I'm not against diversity in media, just do it right, like DOAG said, don't make it the character's entire personality, that's boring and pandering

[@tintillor]

@@Hwarming They overstepped. They wanted to put themselves in games and ended up flaming anyone who made a character that was mildly attractive or sexy. The pushback is expected and deserved.

[@PelemusMcSoy]

If he was trying to change minds, he won't with that smug tone and failing to understand why people don't like DEI. Ironically, he nailed it with his "don't make this social cause your primary trait"; pair that with being called all the worst things for not liking one dimensional characters, bad character designs, and poor stories, and you have the reason why.

[@Coconut-219]

@@PelemusMcSoy This 100%. There is no argument, he's just being disingenuous. People who continue to think like this absolutely deserve the industry crash they're enabling.

[@MrMultiB]

Honestly, if the countless failures don't convince them, then maybe they really are stupid

[@thejunkmanlives]

at this point we need more massive disasters like this in media if things are going to get better(it looks like more are coming). we need to get back to creativity, innovation and most importantly passion. and yes, the robot having gender pronouns, the ugly "inclusive" designs did a lot of damage(unappealing characters in a hero shooter isnt going to get you far).

[@thejunkmanlives]

@@Peasham its an example of the whole package and how dumb it really is. i mean wtf is the point of even listing pronouns?

[@SandwichGamesHeavy]

Indeed

[@thejunkmanlives]

@@SandwichGamesHeavy the problem ist hat people like NS will immediately deflect with a canned response instead of looking in the mirror. when sexuality/race/gender is the focal point of the character it wont be relatable because nobody is that shallow. and this is before you factor in the lecturing that normally comes with this stuff so of course people will avoid it just look at overwatch. doomfist and wrecking ball are my 2 favorite characters(def in my top 10 all time favorites) and i am neither Nigerian or a hamster.