The gaming industry is constantly changing, for better and worse. Mainly for the worse.

For every step forward the industry takes, it also takes two steps back. No publisher is a better example of this than Sony, especially within the last two weeks.

Before we get into it, let me explain a few things. For those who aren’t familiar with the gaming landscape, Sony is part of what is often referred to as the “Big Three,” alongside Nintendo and Microsoft.

Sony is not only the creator of the PlayStation family or consoles but also numerous award winning game series. “God of War,” “Ghost of Tsushima,” “Marvel’s Spider Man” and “The Last of Us,” just to name a few.

Due to their long list of games and consoles, they’re usually looked at in a pretty positive light. Usually.

It all started on May 24. Once a year, Sony hosts short livestreams called “PlayStation Showcase.” The purpose of the livestream was to show off new games and DLCs that would be released in the future. Think of it as Sony’s version of a “Nintendo Direct.”

The show opened up with the extended gameplay reveal of “Firewalk Studio’s Concord.” The segment took up the first 10 minutes of the half-hour stream. The reveal was met with mostly negative responses.

“Concord” was announced a year prior with a lengthy cinematic trailer. Much like the gameplay trailer, the public reaction was less than stellar. Shortly after the reveal, “Concord” was faced with harsh criticism. Gamers started calling the game boring and corporate, citing the bland character designs and dull art style as the game’s primary issue, which is something I strongly agree with.

Going back to the gameplay trailer, “Concord” had a second chance to prove itself to players. Its new trailer was going to change everyone’s minds and prove that it deserved to be taken seriously. This failed.

“Concord” was revealed to be a multiplayer team-based hero shooter, a genre that gamers are quickly growing sick of. Hero shooters are extremely similar to your traditional shooter game. The main difference comes from the emphasis on “hero” characters that have distinct weapons and/or abilities that are specific to them. “Overwatch” and “Valorant” are the most popular games in the genre.

What made the situation even worse was that Sony slapped a $40 price tag on the game, which in all honesty, is pretty good for a game. However, pretty much every major hero shooter from the last few years has been free to play.

To say that no one was excited for “Concord” would be an understatement. Most people were expecting the game to get pushed back due to the negative feedback. This, however, didn’t happen. Sony was determined to release it on its original release date of Aug. 23.

The game was released with little fanfare. As far as we know, only 700 people played the day at launch on PC. For comparison, “Overwatch” usually sits around 20,000 players a day. The reviews for the game itself were mostly mixed.

A Sony game releasing to such a lackluster launch is unheard of in this day and age. Especially a game that took eight years to develop.

Firewalk Studios spent eight years working on “Concord,” a ridiculous amount of time for a shooter. What makes things worse is that Sony closed multiple of their Japanese studios for the sheer purpose of helping “Concord” development.

Things are looking pretty messy right now, so how is Sony planning on fixing things? By shutting the game down and pretending like nothing ever happened.

On Sept. 3, Sony’s social media accounts announced that “Concord” would be shutting down its servers on Sept. 6, just two weeks after launch, and offering refunds to everyone who purchased it.

The news of the sudden shutdown shocked the community. Sure, people were being pretty critical of the game, but no one expected it to not even last a week.

It’s currently unknown if this is the de facto end of “Concord.” Some people believe that the game is going to be heavily reworked and get a free-to-play rerelease, while others believe that the game will just be gone for good.

Personally, I hope that the first option is true. As disappointing as the game was, I would hate to see eight years of work go down the drain. I can’t imagine how the developers must feel about the entire situation.

Sony has officially made a fool of themselves. How do they move on after this?

Quite easily.

Do you guys remember that “PlayStation Showcase” I talked about earlier? At the end of the stream, Sony announced another new game: “Astro Bot.”

“Astro Bot” is a sequel to the PS5 launch title “Astro’s Playroom,” a 3D platformer starring a little toy robot from the future. The trailer was met with extremely high praise. The game was being compared to the “Mario Galaxy” series for its focus on fun gimmicks and space-themed aesthetics.

The game was officially released on Sept. 6, the day “Concord” died. The game received nothing but positive reviews, making it the highest rated game of the year. What stands out the most to me is that the game had an extremely strong development team, being only 60 people.

“Astro Bot” is being seen as almost a love letter to the PlayStation community. The game features countless references to past Sony games and characters.

Sony was back on top. Which is what I would say if they didn’t announce the PS5 Pro earlier this week.

Much like Sony’s previous systems, the PS5 has received a “Pro” model. Unlike those other systems however, fans are not excited. The new “Pro” model received very minor improvements.

With the larger GPU, advanced ray tracing and AI-driven upscaling being the big updates. Most of these improvements are arguably useless.

Most of the criticism comes from the price point. The PS5 Pro is an astounding $700, making it the most expensive console of all time.

Not only that, but that’s just the base model. The console doesn’t come with a stand or disc drive; you have to buy those separately for a combined total of $110. This makes the combined total price of the PS5 Pro $810.

Within a two week time period, Sony managed to destroy their reputation, build it back up and then destroy it again.

The game industry never stays the same for too long. One day we can get games like “Astro Bot,” and then a week later we get the announcement of a $700 console.

No matter if you’re deep into games or just a casual player, you have to admit, the gaming industry is truly a unique place.