In a surprising move, the upcoming sci-fi shooter Concord has announced that it won’t have a battle pass. Firewalk Studios, the developers working with Sony, made the announcement on social media. They said they want players to feel in control, not like the game owns them.
Mark DeRidder, who’s directing the character animations for Concord, really emphasized this. He said “No Battle Pass, folks. You own Concord, Concord doesn’t own you.” This sets Concord apart from other games like Helldivers 2 that use battle passes.
Instead of a battle pass, Firewalk Studios wants to focus on making Concord really rewarding and fun to play right from the start. Players will be able to earn cool rewards just by leveling up their character, completing missions, and playing the game normally. At launch there will be hundreds of different ways to customize your character and weapons through gameplay.
Concord is coming out on August 23rd for the PlayStation 5 and PC. It’ll cost $40 or £35. At launch there will be 12 maps to battle on, 6 different modes to play, and 16 heroes known as “Freegunners” that you can unlock variants for. There will also be solo training modes, but no specific single-player ones yet.
Firewalk Studios says they’ll continue adding new content after launch too, like more maps, modes, and heroes, all for free. They’ll share more details about their post-launch plans soon.
While Concord will still let you buy extra cosmetics, it seems like a breath of fresh air in how it’s handling rewards and customization compared to other games. Gamers and the industry will be watching to see how well Concord does without a battle pass.
