Yep, this is an actual thing. Following the news that Concord isn’t long for this world, there’s now a Change.org petition for the game to be re-released, reasoning that people were just too busy to play in the time around its launch last month.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Sony and Firewalk Studios announced on September 4 that, following a rocky launch that saw it struggle to attract the kind of playerbase the former’s bigwigs were clearly hoping for, Concord will be shutting down on September 6. Players who bought it on PS5 and PC prior to sales ceasing will be offered full refunds, with the first of those moves having made the game a bit of a phenomenon among would-be collectable sellers.
Now, it’s also infiltrated the ranks of people who remember all the weird stuff that happened around the release of the so-bad-it’s-good meme spectacular Morbius, which I’m reliably informed was a film, not just a bunch of jokes. Following some posts on social media editing the infamous 2022 Change.org petition calling for the movie to be brought back to cinemas, there’s now a similar one for Concord.
“We Were All Busy That Week – Please Release Concord Again” is both the title and sole demand of this petition, started just yesterday, September 4, by a Twitter user with the handle Vora Sumi. “Concord, the hero shooter from Sony’s Firewalk Studios is being shut down on September 9; only 3 weeks after its launch,” they write, “I truly believe the game has a chance and should be re-released!!!”
It’s not quite the lovably witty blurb which accompanied that Morbius petition, but they get points for trying, even if they’ve gotten a fairly important detail wrong as part of kinda fudging up the timeline – the shutdown date is September 6, so if anything they’ve undersold the urgency of the thing they’re definitely actually attempting to make happen for reasons that don’t include the phrase ‘shits and giggles’.
As of writing, the petition’s at a whopping 25 signatures, just another 25 away from its current goal of 50. One one of those people has left a comment explaining why they’ve pledged their support. “I was too busy to play Overwatch or see the newest Guardians of the Galaxy,” wrote a user named John Marstall, who I assume isn’t the evil twin of a certain cowboy, “And then I was too busy to try Concord. I might be busy again, but it’s worth a shot.”
I don’t know about you, but I expect we’ll be up to the 32,000 signature mark of that Morbius petition any minute now.
This isn’t the only weird thing that’s happened to PlayStation’s ill-fated hero shooter since its shutdown was announced, with some players having taken to killing their character as quickly as possible at the start of matches, in order to try and earn the game’s platinum trophy before it rides off into the sunset.