Concord: Launch and the journey back

We wanted to take a moment to talk about the journey that lies ahead as Concord launches the following year on August 23. We see start as just the start. The beginning of both the perception we have for Concord and how we will continue to play the sport together. The base game is a foundation for us to establish upon over time, through systems that will increase the universe, introduce new ways to play and master each character, offer you hundreds of distinct rewards to make and access, and narratives to unfold week after week, alongside annual updates that will introduce new characters, new maps and worlds, fresh modes, new stories, new features, and more. *
As we look ahead to start, here’s a picture of what’s to come in Concord:
From the very beginning, we wanted Concord to be a full practice, where all main content is available to you on day-one and moving forward—not gated behind paid additions or a Battle Pass. We want to ensure that we bring all athletes along for the trip and take your investment significantly.
The premiere of Concord Season 1: The Tempest will be in October for our first significant material release. A brand-new viable Freegunner, a brand-new map, fresh Freegunner Variants, more earnable makeup and rewards, a new period of regular Cinematic Vignettes that may follow the Northstar crew’s story, may be introduced in Season 1.
With time 1, we’ll also be introducing an in-game business for those who want to customize their Freegunners even more with more flexibility things in order to stay in the game. These will be in addition to the hundreds of rewards that can be earned through growth, and they will be purely aesthetic, optional, and have no impact on gameplay.
Presenting roll 1 of 9
We’re working on additional seasons throughout Concord, with the first year beginning in January 2025 and more seasonal drops coming in as we approach the first year. Before its launch in October, we ca n’t wait to fully unpack what we have in store for Season 1.
When we first formed Firewalk, we had a lot of thought about the kind of game we wanted to create and what we could add to the online FPS type. We knew we had to focus on the fundamentals that you create an FPS game great: accurate, flexible combat and fast, smooth freedom. Those qualities had to be the bedrock of everything.
However, we also wanted that special spice provided by character abilities. Beyond the impact their abilities, roles, and kits could have in moment-to-moment combat, we saw exciting opportunities to add strategic layers to how and when you choose to deploy them throughout a match. In effect, we wanted to infuse the theorycrafting of a deck builder with a PVP first-person shooter. This served as the foundation for our crew building system.
You can use Crew Builder to create Custom Crews of Freegunners that you can use in matches. Every Custom Crew has 12 programmable slots that you can add to what will grow the list of Freegunners and their Variants. Each Freegunner will possess several Variants, each of which have unique abilities that can be unlocked by completing a number of in-game challenges. These Variants are individual variations of each character.
Each Custom Crew must have five unique Freegunners, but you can stack up to three copies of any given Freegunner’s Variants, empowering you to really focus on specific characters that you like to play as and that align best with the broader makeup of your team, the modes you’re playing, or your general playstyle.
Crew Builder is intended to inspire experimentation with various characters as well, but it also allows you to develop your own unique approach to combat strategy. Each Custom Crew comes with four Back Up slots, which are randomly populated with Freegunners who are n’t currently members of your Custom Crew.
Crew Builder encourages the creation of custom crews with various character combinations. Unlike traditional archetypes, like Tank or Support, each Freegunner in Concord is meant to deliver high-DPS and be effective in a gunfight. Instead, our characters are defined by one of six distinct roles and the impact they can have in combat—whether that’s locking down an area, dominating long sightlines, or flanking enemies.
By combining Freegunners from various roles with your crew, you can gain advantage through unique in-match bonuses known as Crew Bonuses. You receive special bonuses that apply to any character you deploy from the moment you first use a Freegunner in a variety of roles during a match in addition to those that increase mobility, improve weapon recoil, and reduce cooldown times.
When you combine all of these systems—Crew Builder, Back-Up Slots, Freegunner Variants, and Crew Bonuses—there’s so much depth to how you can craft, refine, and master your builds in Concord as your experience grows. Additionally, it allows the meta to continuously evolve in novel ways as new Freegunner variants and new Freegunners and variants are introduced season after season.
Ultimately, when we step back and think about what drew us to make Concord and what we love most about multiplayer games, it’s exactly that: the potential for continuous evolution. The excitement of the potential directions we can take the experience forward is. And it’s the sense of adventure of finding out, together.
Prepare for launch
We look forward to welcoming you to the Concord galaxy and seeing how you develop each Freegunner and all of our systems in brand-new, exciting ways, beginning with Tuesday, August 20 for owners of Digital Deluxe Edition, followed by our global launch on Friday, August 23. Pre-load for all editions on PS5 will begin today, Tuesday, August 13.
Servers for Concord’s Early Access launch on August 20 will go live at 10: 00am PDT | 7: 00pm CEST | 2: 00am ( August 21 ) JST.
For all the latest on Concord, be sure to follow us on Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok, as well as by joining the community in the Official Concord Discord.
*A PlayStation Network account and internet access are necessary. Paid for PlayStation Plus membership ( sold separately ) required on PS5.