Concord Gets Shut Down, Switch 2 Rumors Heat Up, And More Of The Week’s Top Stories

Image: Firewalk Studios, Sony / Firewalk Studios / Kotaku, Blizzard, Boss Key / PlayStation / Epic / Kotaku, Nintendo / Kotaku, Sony / Kotaku, Capcom / Kotaku, Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku, Microsoft, Photo: Michael Tullberg (Getty Images)

FThe biggest story of the week was probably the announcement that Sony was shutting down Concord, its big, expensive, long-in-development hero shooter, just two weeks after its disappointing launch. We’ve got the details on the original announcement, as well as reactions from across the internet.

In other news, rumors about Nintendo’s successor to the Switch are swirling, Sony sorta confirms leaked design images for a PS5 Pro, and disgraced streamer Dr Disrespect touts his return. All these stories and more are yours for the reading.

Image: Firewalk Studios

If you hadn’t heard the big news of the day, Sony and developer Firewalk Studios are shutting down Concord, the not-Guardians of the Galaxy hero shooter that has been flopping hard since its launch on August 23. The studio seems to be planning some kind of comeback, as the announcement says the shutdown on September 6 is so the team can “explore options” about what it will do next. In the meantime, anyone who purchased the game is eligible for a full refund. – Kenneth Shepard Read More

Image: Sony / Firewalk Studios / Kotaku

Concord is shutting down its servers on September 6 and will not be playable after that as its developers “explore” other options for the sci-fi shooter released last month on PS5 and PC. The game struggled to find an audience—never cracking over 1,000 concurrent players on Steam—and quickly became a flop that was also derided by many critics and fans. – Zack Zwiezen Read More

Screenshot: Nintendo / Kotaku

It’s official: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom don’t fit on any previous Legend of Zelda timeline. As revealed by Nintendo this weekend, the two open-world games that bookended the Switch’s lifespan stand alone in their own version of reality. Which means all that time you spent trying to work out how they fit in with the previous games was futile. – John Walker Read More

Image: Blizzard

Last week, Blizzard launched War Within, the latest World of Warcraft expansion. And for those of you wondering if that one player who never left the starting area of Mists of Pandaria aka the Panda expansion is still neutrally grinding away and hitting the max level in 2024 the answer is: Yes. Yes indeed. – Zack Zwiezen Read More

Photo: Michael Tullberg (Getty Images)

Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm is promoting his apparent return months after going offline following a “sexting” controversy around his original 2020 Twitch ban. He even tried to preempt the pedophile jokes that now routinely flood the mentions under his social media posts. “WHeRe’s He CoMinG from, Epstein iSlAnd?” the disgraced streamer tweeted on Thursday. – Ethan Gach Read More

Image: Boss Key / PlayStation / Epic / Kotaku

Recently, Sony announced that its next big live-service shooter, Concord, was closing up and the servers were being turned off. It was a surprising and unprecedented move. Usually, AAA live-service games are given more time to turn things around. – Zack Zwiezen Read More

Image: Nintendo / Kotaku

Nintendo Switch owners have been waiting for upgraded hardware for years. They might finally get a glimpse of that later this month, as rumors continue pouring in about an imminent reveal of a Switch 2 console in September, including that it will boast backwards compatibility so that fans’ vast game collections can come along for the ride. – Ethan Gach Read More

The icons from the banner (left) and the rumored PS5 Pro design.Image: Sony / Kotaku

Sony is beginning to ramp up celebrations for the upcoming 30th anniversary of the PlayStation brand. And new images posted by the company seem to include an icon of a console that looks a lot like the alleged leaked PS5 Pro design. Hmmm… – Zack Zwiezen Read More

Image: Capcom / Kotaku

Capcom’s ambition to bring some of its big-hitting AAA games to mobile devices is certainly to be applauded. It’s a bold ambition, to see Resident Evil 7 on a tablet. So it’s a shame the project has been pretty disastrous, the games barely shifting any copies. And Capcom’s reaction? Make it far, far more inconvenient to play them. – John Walker Read More

Screenshot: Microsoft

Age of Mythology: Retold is out today on Xbox and PC. Critics seem to like it and people who paid extra to play early are mostly happy with this remastered version of the classic 2002 PC strategy game. However, players aren’t excited at all about being asked to spend money on 22-year-old JPEGs. – Zack Zwiezen Read More