CWA Union Criticizes Sony for Closing Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 January 2025 / 5,534 Views
The Communication Workers of America (CWA) labor union has fired back at Sony for shutting down Concord developer Firewalk Studios and mobile studio Neon Koi.
"Collective bargaining not only allows workers a seat at the table to bargain for fair compensation, but also a voice on the job to have a say over how workers will be impacted by job cuts," said the labor union in a statement reported by Game Developer.
The CWA has claimed this is a "warning sign" of Sony "furthering their monopoly position" in the industry.
"Sony's decision to dissolve studios outside their walled-garden of PlayStation-exclusive content, rather than making games that have to compete in the highly diverse and competitive mobile game market, should be a cautionary warning sign of Sony's interests in furthering their monopoly position in the video game industry," said the CWA.
"CWA plans to raise the anti-competitive impacts of Sony's increasing monopoly and monopsony power with the appropriate antitrust regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders."
Sony announced it would be closing the two studios earlier this week. Neon Koi's mobile action game will not be moving forward and Concord, which was delisted and taken offline on September 6, will not be returning.
Around 210 employees will be laid off between Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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If you have something that have made you lose over 200+ million $ you do not keep it.
Sony is furthering a monopoly by making less games? Is that how it works?
Sounds like fearmongering to convince workers that they need to bring in this Union.
Not really sure I understand the monopoly creation angle here. Am I missing something?
I think I see what they’re saying, though it certainly feels like CWA is grasping-at-straws. To cite their reasoning explicitly (as stated in the above article): "Sony's decision to dissolve studios outside their walled-garden of PlayStation-exclusive content, rather than making games that have to compete in the highly diverse and competitive mobile game market, should be a cautionary warning sign of Sony's interests in furthering their monopoly position in the video game industry.”
In short, Sony’s choice to kill Concord rather than port it over to rival platforms, such as mobile devices, indicates Sony is deliberately working against supporting alternative system, and the reason they are able to do this (i.e. the reason they are able to take such a hefty financial hit at the expense of refusing to port the title to rival systems) is b/c they have accumulated so much market power in the console industry. Thus, they are abusing their market power.
Firewalk studios created one of the biggest, If not the biggest, flop in Playstation history. What they want? Sony injecting another+300M in the studio!?
Probably would want the works to be moved to other studios or reposition the studio to do something totally different. Its not the game that was bad its just that the PS audience isn't interested in a service game which was more a bad direction on Sony management than anything else.
"...Its not the game that was bad its just that the PS audience isn't interested in a service game..."
I, respectfully, disagree. Helldivers 2 is proof that a "good GAAS" can be created and released for Playstation and PC. There is an audience for quality games with an interesting proposal.
Concord was a failure on a level never seen before on Playstation. The studio is responsible for the failure, as are the "executives" and management supporting the project direction
It's sad for all the people losing their Jobs and hopes, but there is no more morale and trust in this Studio. It's like a sport team that suffers years of disastrous seasons. It's better to start something new from scratch, the chemistry of talent and culture created simply didn't work and it's unlikely to work if they continue.
Nothing against individuals, without a doubt there are a lot of talented people who did a great job. The problem is the team, the sum of all its parts, a sum that ended up giving a very bad result.
"In PlayStation History"
I'd say nearly all of gaming history as a whole lol
Did Neon Koi ever even release anything? Like what mobile game did they make that people can mention? Firewalk studio did a horrible job at something, and got closed down. Isn't that normal?
studio closures are never good. That’s hundred of ppl unemployed. Not surprising it got shut down, and certainly not a trait of a monopoly, but it’s not good.
Can someone please educate me on the CWA union?. This is the first time of me hearing of this union and I know nothing about what other industries they're with.
When the ABK deal went through, they said that it was good for the industry and gamers.
Now that Sony is closing studios they’re saying it’s because they want to create a monopoly
Their interest in the ABK deal appears to mainly concern its legally binding neutrality to industry workers unionizing. This layoff by Sony is an example of why unionizing would probably be a good idea.
Did CWA ever make a negative comment like this when MS recently laid off thousands after the ABK deal?
You can look it up, but the short answer is yes.
Cool just wondering, I never heard any news and thought I asked.
I must've trigged some sensitive pathetic fanboys for getting some thumb down by simply asking a question lol
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