Amazon’s upcoming video game anthology show Secret Level has an extra level of intrigue built into its release. Not only will it showcase a who’s who in gaming past and present, but it will also memorialize what could have been with Sony’s canceled team-based hero shooter, Concord. Rather than look at the situation with a glass-half-empty perspective, Secret Level‘s creator beckons fans to enroll in the idea that it will showcase the game’s lost potential instead.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, Secret Level creator Tim Miller broke his silence regarding Concord‘s sudden cancelation. He also expressed how he feels no sense of shame having the game featured as part of his anthology, and hopes viewers take it as an opportunity to appreciate the hard work its developers put into the game’s world and characters through the show.
“I don’t feel bad that it’s a part of the show, because I think it’s an episode that turned out really well, and you can kind of see the potential of this world and the characters,” Miller told Rolling Stone. “If it’s the remaining vestige of that product, I hope the developers feel that it’s in some way worthy, just a little bit, of the blood, sweat, and tears they put into it.”
In September, Sony unexpectedly announced the shutdown of Concord just two weeks post-launch on PlayStation 5 and PC. Kotaku reported Sony’s decision stemmed from a combination of low sales and insufficient concurrent player numbers. Concord’s cancelation also culminated in the shutdown of its development studio Firewalk, two years after Sony purchased it.
“There was no nicer, more invested group of developers than the team on Concord,” Miller said. “I honestly don’t understand why it didn’t work. I know that they were trying to do the best they could, and they were a talented group of artists, so I feel terrible for that.”
According to another report from Kotaku, Concord cost Sony a whopping $200 million to develop. For perspective, Riot Games invested $250 million in both seasons of Arcane, its League of Legends Netflix show. So imagine if, after two weeks of the show being out, Riot and Netflix pulled the plug on it and removed it from the streamer because it wasn’t getting the numbers they hoped it would. That’s the streamer equivalent of what Sony did with Concord after removing it from online storefronts two weeks after its release.
Concord‘s cancelation led folks to speculate whether Secret Level would scrap its episode. That is, until parties close to the show’s development confirmed with IGN that no such plans were in place.
Secret Level‘s 15-episode lineup features a smörgåsbord of hit video game titles like Warhammer 40,000, Mega Man, God of War, and Armored Core. Its voice cast is also stacked, featuring big marquee actors like Laura Bailey, Keanu Reeves, and Arnold Schwarzanegger among its list of Hollywood talent.
Secret Level premieres on Prime Video December 10.
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