Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players. While we determine the best path ahead, Concord sales will cease immediately and we will begin to offer a full refund for all gamers who have purchased the game for PS5 or PC. If you purchased the game for PlayStation 5 from the PlayStation Store or PlayStation Direct, a refund will be issued back to your original payment method.
I've read interviews before where developers know when the project they're working on is shit well in advance of release. It probably still feels bad because talented people worked on it and did their best given the project they were assigned, but they most likely knew it wasn't gonna be pretty. I hope they get to throw around some "I told you so"s
I worked in game development for like a decade before I finally got burnt out and this is basically why. Overwhelming amount of the work you do is just going to be shovelware and in all the years doing it I can think of basically 3 projects that I was genuinely happy to be involved with and working on.
If you want a silver lining: concord's failure kinda doesn't matter to most of the people who worked on it personally or professionally. 99% of videogame work is gig/contract so most of them probably were going to be laid off one way or another after the launch and having art assets from a AAA game like concord still looks great on your demo reel irrespective of what the actual sales numbers were.