Well, it’s official- Sony has introduced that Harmony and developer Firewalk Studios are each being completely shuttered. From minute one, the doomed first-person shooter by no means actually stood a lot of an opportunity. Since its announcement, it had been abundantly evident that individuals weren’t a lot occupied with shopping for what it was promoting, and the nearer we bought to launch, the clearer it turned that Harmony was going to battle to seek out an audience- although few may have predicted that it might battle as a lot because it did.
Inside a mere two weeks of launch, following disappointing gross sales and lukewarm crucial reception, Harmony was pulled offline, and everybody who purchased the sport was refunded. Firewalk and Sony’s place on the time was that they’d put their heads collectively and try to determine a special future for the game- which implied that perhaps there was a future for the sport. Many assumed that perhaps it might return within the type of a free-to-play shooter, however actually, the extra you considered it, the clearer it turned that Harmony was possible not going to get a second shot. Not after happening as one of many largest and most high-profile first-party failures the video games trade has ever seen.
Now, Sony has made the announcement that Firewalk Studios is shutting down, with cellular developer Neon (beforehand referred to as Savage Sport Studios) additionally being shuttered, and it’s an absolute disgrace for simply so many causes. At the beginning, it’s a disgrace, in fact, that a number of a whole lot of persons are shedding their jobs, including to the already a number of 1000’s of job cuts and layoffs this trade has seen over the past couple of years. It’s additionally a disgrace to see a brand new IP bombing this tough. Gaming, like every inventive medium, desperately wants a relentless inflow of latest concepts, so to see a serious new first-party IP failing on this vogue isn’t nice. You simply know {that a} bunch of c-suite executives on the market are going to resolve based mostly on Harmony’s failure that perhaps it won’t be definitely worth the threat to make huge bets on fully new properties- which is the alternative of the path we wish to be headed in.
Past that, nonetheless, Firewalk Studios’ closure can be indicative of a a lot bigger subject at PlayStation, and yet one more obtrusive instance of the cavalcade of poor choices the corporate has made these previous couple of years. The PS5 era as a complete has seen Sony at its most irritating in a number of methods. Sure, we now have clearly had numerous nice first-party video games over the course of this era, from Horizon Forbidden West and God of Struggle Ragnarok to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Astro Bot, amongst others, however although the corporate has continued to ship high quality video games, that has sadly gone hand-in-hand with disastrous mismanagement in different areas.
Sony acquired Firewalk Studios nearly a yr and a half in the past, in April of 2023, previous to which it had already agreed to fund and publish the studio’s debut title, so clearly, it believed in Harmony, or at the least what it may turn into. The place that confidence got here from, nonetheless, is an actual headscratcher, as a result of realizing what we now know of Harmony, we are able to say with equal confidence that although it wasn’t with out its personal justifiable share of gameplay strengths, total, it clearly wasn’t geared up for long-term success- and even short-term success, as it might prove. No, it was a flawed $40 Overwatch clone in 2024, in a market that’s already flooded with related reside service shooters.
Banking so arduous on Harmony was in and of itself a mistake, then, however much more egregious is how Sony has chosen to cope with the fallout. Firewalk is being shuttered lower than two years out from being acquired, a whole lot of persons are shedding their jobs, and the sport they spent years engaged on was allowed to stay on-line for simply two weeks. And let’s not overlook Neon Koi, the cellular studio that was acquired simply a few years in the past as a part of Sony’s huge cellular push- which, as per co-CEO Hermen Hulst, nonetheless stays an necessary a part of the corporate’s technique, regardless of the truth that Neon Koi is being shuttered, and its recreation cancelled. Harmony and its fallout with Firewalk, it’s arduous to think about examples of different publishers dealing with a tough scenario with this sort of bumbling idiocy and lack of grace. Actually, PlayStation management has made an absolute mockery of itself.
Unsurprisingly, the dialog as soon as once more takes us again to Sony’s misguided reside service ambitions. We’re barely a few video games into these plans, and the listing of failures is already lengthy. Harmony shelved, and Firewalk shuttered. The Final of Us On-line cancelled, and Naughty Canine wanting nowhere near releasing a brand new recreation this era. London Studios shuttered, and its reside service recreation cancelled. Partnered AAA indie studio Deviation Video games shuttered, earlier than it may even announce its recreation. The one success Sony has seen on this area up to now has been Helldivers 2, which is extra of a shock success than one which the corporate labored for and deliberate around- and even that Sony has in some way managed to fumble with its PSN necessities on PC, illustrating simply learn how to snap defeat from the jaws of victory.
You possibly can, in fact, perceive from a monetary perspective why Sony wished different streams of income in addition to its huge finances single-player titles, however Firewalk’s closure and the disastrous decision-making surrounding Harmony are completely emblematic of how terribly the corporate has executed on these plans. In his inside e mail to PlayStation workers the place he introduced the shuttering of Firewalk and Neon Koi, PlayStation’s co-CEO Hermen Hulst touched on how the corporate will be taught from the failings of Harmony because it strikes ahead, however it’s arduous to think about this model of PlayStation having the capability to be taught extra its errors.
This model of PlayStation is so entrenched in its idiotic imaginative and prescient for the longer term that it feels prefer it’s solely ever going to make horrible determination after horrible determination. Like shuttering a studio that it’s best to by no means have purchased lower than two years after shopping for it. Like shedding 900 individuals earlier within the yr. Like spending over $300 million on Spider-Man 2, watching it get pleasure from widespread crucial and industrial success, after which shedding a bunch of individuals at Insomniac anyway. Like investing a number of billions into Bungie, solely to observe the studio’s situation go from dangerous to worse within the blink of a watch. Like adopting a collective coverage of compacting as a lot cash out of your viewers as doable, with elevated costs for video games, consoles, equipment, or subscription providers. Like promoting a professional console for $700 and refusing to promote it with a disc drive, or hell, even a stand.
And that’s simply scratching the floor. That is the model of PlayStation we’re caught with, and the Harmony debacle is yet one more stark reminder of that. Clearly, you need to hope that Sony will certainly be taught from these big and dear errors – and boy have these errors been big and dear – however they needed to make a string of mind-numbingly silly choices to seek out themselves on this place, leaving you to wonder if they even have the capability to know what the appropriate path ahead is.
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