The Concord Curse Continues

Overview

The speaker reacts to news that another Sony “live service” game has effectively been killed before launch, arguing that this pattern confirms a broader, predictable failure of Sony’s live-service push.

Horizon Spin-off: Canceled / Reworked

• Hunters Gathering the Horizon (a live-service spin-off) has had its live-service features removed (“fully gutted”).
• This change reportedly follows negative playtesting.
• The studio is said to be pivoting toward a more traditional co-op model, instead of continuing toward live-service “slop.”

The “Concord Curse” / Fastest Flop Trend

The speaker frames the situation as part of the same collapse seen with Concord and other Sony-backed live-service attempts:

• Hunters Gathering the Horizon is presented as another project in an accelerating sequence of games that are abandoned or fail to meaningfully launch.

Sony-Backed Games Struggling (A Pattern of Failures)

The speaker claims that three of four major failures in this “timeline” are tied to Sony’s live-service initiative, citing:

• Concord (dead)
• Highgard (also dead soon after)
• Marathon (barely hanging on)
• Hunters Gathering (now vaporized before launch/live-service rollout)

Deadline Pressure (Bloomberg)

Citing Bloomberg, the speaker says the project is:

• Racing against a clock to deliver something by December, potentially to impress PlayStation leadership.
• If internal reception remains negative, the project may still be canceled even after substantial investment.

Limited Salvage; Late Pivot Is Difficult

The speaker emphasizes that:

• The reboot/pivot has reportedly been underway since around June.
• It’s likely too little time to fix a direction that is fundamentally unpopular.

Future Horizon Plans

The speaker adds that:

• A new Horizon single-player game is being developed by a small team.
• It’s tentatively called “Horizon 3” and is expected to be years away.
• This suggests resources are being reshuffled away from live-service goals.

Criticism of Leadership and Incentives

A major theme is anger that executives who greenlit these projects aren’t suffering consequences:

The speaker argues decision-makers can “fail upwards,” while teams spend massive sums on games that don’t match player demand.

Broader Conclusion

While the speaker says not every live-service game is doomed, they argue Sony’s attempts have largely been:

• Formulaic
• Insufficiently novel
• Out of touch with what players want

They also note that Sony is backtracking from an all-in live-service strategy.

Presenters / Contributors

• No other presenters or contributors are named in the provided subtitles.
• The content appears to be delivered by a single speaker.