Reports suggest that the cost of developing the game Concord reached £300 million amidst a culture of “toxic positivity.”

Some insiders referred to the game as the “future of PlayStation” with Star Wars-like potential.

The game, which was recently pulled from PlayStation’s lineup, reportedly cost £300 million ($400 million).

According to the PlayStation blog Sacred Symbols, they spoke with someone who “worked on Concord,” and revealed that the development process was “far worse than you’d think” and was plagued by “toxic positivity,” meaning that critical feedback was ignored.

The podcast host also claimed that Concord was internally referred to as the “future of PlayStation,” with potential on par with Star Wars.

This claim of “toxic positivity” was supported by Kotaku.

Kotaku’s senior reporter wrote on X/Twitter: “I can confirm the part about toxic positivity.” He added that some of the sources he spoke to blamed a “head-in-the-sand mentality,” which had carried over from the studio’s roots in Bungie.

It was believed that the game would succeed simply because the team was too talented to fail.
However, the reporter couldn’t verify the $400 million figure, saying, “That’s not the number I heard.”

Some developers familiar with PlayStation also cast doubt on the $400 million figure, suggesting that it likely includes the cost of acquiring Firewalk.

Concord was pulled from sale this month, just two weeks after its release on PS5 and PC. The game’s director, Ryan Ellis, admitted that “while many aspects of the experience resonated with players, [the team] also acknowledges that other elements of the game and our initial launch didn’t land as we intended.”

Sony then issued refunds to all players.

Just days after Concord was removed from online stores, it was reported that Ellis stepped down, leaving the team at Firewalk Studios in a state of uncertainty.