Firewalk Studios’ Harmony launched roughly two weeks in the past to little or no notable response. Gross sales allegedly sit at round 25,000 copies, whereas the general crucial response is seemingly one big “meh” with a 62 Metascore primarily based on 40 crucial evaluations.
It shortly turned often called “This took what number of years to develop?” and “It had what number of peak concurrent gamers on Steam?”. There have been expectations that it might chug together with its roadmap and add that promised beauty retailer with microtransactions, oblivious to plummeting participant counts. Nonetheless, in a latest PlayStation Weblog put up, Firewalk introduced the surprising – Harmony is being pulled from storefronts on September sixth.
Not solely will all clients on PC and PS5 obtain refunds, however the aggressive shooter can even go offline. In case you bought a bodily copy, that field has grow to be costlier than the typical paperweight or a collector’s merchandise. Both method, its roadmap is out the window, and the long run is unsure.
What spurred this resolution, except for, nicely, actuality being what it’s? As sport director Ryan Ellis famous, “Whereas many qualities of the expertise resonated with gamers, we additionally acknowledge that different points of the sport and our preliminary launch didn’t land the way in which we’d meant.” After Harmony goes offline, Firewalk will “discover choices,” which incorporates these that may “higher attain our gamers.”
We’ve seen a number of disasters over the previous handful of years in video video games. Cyberpunk 2077’s launch and being pulled from the PlayStation Retailer on prime of full refunds for gamers. Anthem’s launch and damaged post-launch guarantees, to say nothing of the devastating influence on BioWare’s already tarnished popularity.
Marvel’s Avengers and its failures, together with extreme losses for Sq. Enix, adopted by its delisting from all storefronts final 12 months. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (particularly following latest layoffs at Rocksteady because of its underperformance). Cranium and Bones. The checklist goes on.
Nonetheless, there’s in all probability by no means been a big-budget live-service multiplayer title from a significant writer taken offline and refunded in simply two weeks. Harmony is formally Sony’s greatest failure in years. It’s yet one more indictment of the reside service mannequin in a 12 months with no scarcity of the identical.
Whereas this example could also be as momentary, it’s value noting that there’s no ETA for the sport’s return. Exploring “choices” might imply something from utterly revamping the core mechanics to reworking it into a wholly completely different title like, say, a co-op PvE shooter. It might additionally imply shuttering the whole endeavor and reducing losses. As a lot as this measure could possibly be seen as saving face, you possibly can additionally view it as Sony not eager to burn any extra money on sustaining servers, particularly with such low participant counts.
Even when server prices weren’t the explanation, there’s nonetheless the problem of promoting a product whose principal objective – aggressive multiplayer – wouldn’t have sufficient gamers to make sure a gradual stream of matches. Why would the writer spend money on its post-launch help when new seasons, maps and characters clearly gained’t transfer the needle? Think about how low present numbers should have been if Sony didn’t even fake it might bounce again.
You would argue that Harmony’s destiny was determined again in Might. The low cost Guardians of the Galaxy aura from the cinematic trailer did little to ignite curiosity. As soon as the gameplay debuted, you possibly can really feel the near-universal rejection. It wasn’t even a one-off phenomenon – curiosity ranges have been worryingly low in the course of the beta, even when it turned accessible to all gamers on PC and PS5.
Then once more, you possibly can return two years to when PlayStation introduced it might ship ten live-service titles by March 2026. How the acquisition of Bungie aids of their growth and “significantly accelerates” plans, per former CEO Jim Ryan (emphasis on “former”).
Contemplating the variety of reside service failures by that time, there was loads of skepticism, particularly when PlayStation had garnered common approval for its single-player efforts. In a world the place most builders and publishers couldn’t take the trace about video games as a service, efforts like Horizon Forbidden West, God of Struggle Ragnarok, Returnal, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and extra have been seen as beacons of hope.
There was some hope that these titles would observe within the footsteps of Ghost of Tsushima’s wonderful Legends mode. The standalone multiplayer title spun off from Factions in The Final of Us additionally held some promise regardless of little details about its gameplay. Sadly, layoffs occurred, tasks have been cancelled, and the remaining was historical past. Arrowhead Studios’ Helldivers 2 continues to face out as Sony’s lone success in its live-service endeavor regardless of having a horrific launch because of server points.
It’s all of the extra irritating when it nonetheless has Fairgame$ from Haven Studios within the works. There’s some hope it might stand out, particularly since there aren’t many competent heist titles, however time will inform. The much less mentioned about Bungie’s Marathon, reportedly going through points behind the scenes, the higher, even when that’s a multi-platform launch.
As for Harmony, loads of causes have been cited for its failure. Charging $40 for a aggressive shooter when the market already has superior free choices like Overwatch 2 and Valorant – heck, even Valve’s Impasse, when you obtained invited – was already seen as ludicrous. Character designs and kits have been uninspired. The Crew Bonuses and protracted deployables have been gimmicky and little else. The weekly vignettes fulfilled little objective regardless of wanting graphically fairly.
Nonetheless, maybe worst of all, it’s the dearth of a compelling gameplay hook – a purpose to play and get invested. Heck, have a look at Marvel Rivals. Regardless of being a hero shooter and taking a number of cues from Overwatch, with most of the identical modes we’ve seen numerous occasions, the closed playtest in July peaked at 52,671 concurrent gamers on Steam.
Even with that enthusiasm, which far exceeded Harmony’s beta numbers on PC, NetEase isn’t deviating from its free-to-play mannequin for launch. Why? As a result of on prime of realizing how the competitors works, it needs to – shock, shock – make it accessible to as many individuals as potential. No price ticket. No locking heroes. No PSN account linking.
I might go on about different live-service efforts which have proven that the style isn’t as horrendous as efforts like Cranium and Bones, Suicide Squad, and now Harmony make it out to be, however that’s irrelevant. Maybe Sony knew that Harmony would underperform and launched it anyway to attempt to recoup no matter investments have been made. Possibly it thought that word-of-mouth might result in it selecting up over time. On the very worst, you possibly can argue that it was despatched to die, although I’ve a tough time believing Sony would spend money on any advertising and marketing if that have been the case.
It’s saying one thing when Harmony discovering a worthwhile path is the least seemingly consequence. Possibly it might occur, however for all these comeback tales within the business, there are lots that don’t pan out. Sony will preserve chugging on on the finish of the day, maybe focusing extra on the single-player titles and blockbusters that made it such an enormous deal.
Harmony will fade into reminiscence, in all probability sooner relatively than later. What’s going to grow to be of Firewalk Studios, particularly given the variety of layoffs in latest occasions, is anybody’s guess. Nonetheless, nothing will change simply how unprecedented this complete state of affairs is, even after the whole lot we’ve seen within the reside service area thus far.
