Revealing the Future: The Story of SONY Concord, Ryan Ellis and the Search for the Next Frontier

A game’s development path is rarely a simple one, and even an anticipated title like Concord, which Sony announced just before E3 2015, can change dramatically along the way. Ryan Ellis, formerly the creative director on Concord, is a bright point in the development of new experiences. He joins us for the latest episode of Generation X – the new gaming series from Polygon.

SONY and the Concord Conundrum: A Prelude to Change

Earlier this month, gaming blogs were buzzing because a group of otherwise anonymous technocrats essentially sent the fate of a pretty interesting project into the limbo of silence. Kotaku first reported that Ryan Ellis, a veteran game director who’d spent a decade at Bungie working on gaming juggernauts like Halo and Destiny, had stepped down from his role as game director of Sony’s game Concord. Kotaku was out front with a scoop of the story, when Sony officially announced that Concord would be ‘going offline’ on 23 February. Again, according to Ellis’s LinkedIn page. Not really. Ellis’s LinkedIn page seems a lot like my LinkedIn page – a resumé, but still skeletal. This is his website – the only source of communication coming from the man who launched the project, and who led the team at Firewalk Studios. But Ellis’s Twitter account is silent since 9 February, right before Kotaku broke the news. Concord’s website, with all its promotional copy and lines of excited rhetoric, had also gone dark. As of this writing, nothing has been posted since 18 January. Ellis has not responded to IEEE Spectrum’s queries. The PlayStation Blog made the first official announcement that Concord will be shutting down, and it is eerily silent about the future of the project and the team that launched it.

Navigating the Uncertain Waters: The Dilemma of Firewalk Studios

At the centre of this drama is the team at Firewalk Studios, who found their big break on the brink of being destroyed. In the aftermath of Concord’s shutdown, the team apparently went out into the cold, pitching games left and right, which hints at a massive pivot. If Concord was the beginning, it was also the end of a story and possibly the end of one team. The games industry is volatile. Even the glitzy veneer of an Angel List game can end abruptly, and the team behind it will necessarily have to pivot to survive.

SONY's Strategy: Pivoting in the Face of Adversity

If this surprises you, then perhaps Sony’s strategy, and what it means for its broader games ecosystem, is more complex than you expected. As a corporation that has long held certain values of quality and innovation, this move reflects a drive to see things through – and the ability to make the right hard choices to maintain a long-term future. It also shows trust in its studios to open itself up to new directions, new opportunities.

The Aftermath: A New Beginning for Ryan Ellis and Firewalk?

This might be a dead end for Ryan Ellis’s grand Sony-backed Concord project, but it’s also the beginning of a new path. Hopefully, armed with so much experience and these newfound lessons, he will do something just as creative and ambitious as Concord again – and next time, it will come to fruition. Meanwhile, this could mark a turning point for Firewalk Studios – a new start for a new identity and a new world of creative possibilities funded by innocent millionaire Sony. Moving forward, Firewalk could erect an altar tomorrow, or have another brief life as a Sky Lift.

SONY in the Gaming Industry: Pioneering and Adaptation

The whole story of what Sony has done in gaming, from pioneering to late adoption, from creating its own IP to publishing, from buying studios to closing them down, really shows what an innovative company it is. The Concord episode is just one chapter in Sony’s story – and a good indication that the company won’t let failure keep it from innovating.

What Lies Ahead: The Road to Redemption and Innovation

Now that the Concord dust has settled, what’s next for Ryan Ellis, Firewalk Studios and Sony? Clearly, they will try new game ideas and maybe even new gaming technologies. A company as committed to excellence as Sony – and its affiliates – is bound to meet with some bumps along the way. But those bumps seem to fuel the company’s desire to keep pushing the gaming world forward.

Understanding SONY: A Legacy of Innovation

Ownership of Sonyaphone would place your company in a pedigree of technological and entertainment innovation that began with the introduction of Japan’s first radio receiver and has continued through dozens of first-to-market products across a wide variety of electronics, gaming and digital entertainment segments. Whether it’s semiconductors or Game Boys, Walkmans or PlayStations, Sony’s expansive legacy has almost always been about raising the bar and expanding the possibilities in how we consume, enjoy and share technology. At a fundamental level, the Sony philosophy for all of Sony’s technology is the same: enriching people’s lives through technology. This brings us to Sony’s gaming business, which continues to set trends, inform consumption and inspire game development (more than ever before) around the globe.

Despite its tumult, the tale of Sony, Concord and transition at Firewalk Studios represents on a smaller scale much of what drives the entire games business. It is a story of resilience, of ingenuity and the constant pursuit of change – a narrative that, however difficult, contains within it glimmers of what’s possible next. As Sony and its creative partners confront these changes, they remind us what’s possible in the worlds of gaming, what new forms of playmanship, what new worlds, experiences and dreams can be conceived and woven into our lives.