Concord is breaking live-service traditions by announcing it won’t have a battle pass

It may not be the most popular live service game right out of the gate, but Concord is aiming to make a name for itself. And to prove that fact, Sony and Firewalk Studios have just announced that “You own Concord, Concord doesn’t own you,” which means the game won’t do battle passes.

The news comes straight from the developers of the game, through a series of posts on the title’s official Twitter/X account. Firewalk Studios explained the way they plan to have the game work, with the reason for it not having a battle pass of any kind being that they “wanted to focus [its] attention on making Concord a rewarding and robust experience on day one, where just playing the game, leveling up your accounts and characters, and completing jobs yields meaningful rewards.”

The quote above about not being chained to Concord comes from the game’s gameplay animation director, Mark DeRidder, who reconfirmed “No Battle Pass, folks.” The choice of the developer to deny that kind of monetization structure means that the live-service aspect of the game could actually be entirely different to the kind of grindy gameplay that players have grown accustomed to in the last few years, as basically every multiplayer game adapted the idea.

So how will Sony get their money worth off this investment? As the studio has mentioned before, the game is not free to play: Concord will be priced at $40 dollars (just as Helldivers II is), with ongoing monetization coming from direct purchases of cosmetic items in the game. No loot boxes or leveling up to unlock a high enough tier for a recolor of your outfit, just going into the store and buying only what you want.

Will this work for Concord in the long run? If the game manages to attract enough players to maintain a healthy userbase, it’s possible that we’ll see the 5v5 shooter grow and attempt other formats. But for now we’ll have to wait and see for it to release on August 23, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and PC via both Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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