Well, that didn’t take long… less than two weeks after Sony released Concord, their entry into the incredibly crowded pool that has become the online multiplayer arena shooter market, they pulled the plug. After investing eight years and millions of dollars into developing their own answer to hits like Fortnite and Overwatch, Concord released to mediocre reviews and a clearly disinterested audience, failing to even reach 1,000 concurrent players worldwide during its’ short flight on store shelves. Very rarely does a game fail so spectacularly that its’ own publisher gives it the “Old Yeller” treatment and offers full refunds to everyone who made the mistake of purchasing it, but that is exactly what happened here. With no offline mode to fall back on, Concord has been erased from the marketplace as if it never existed… and this implosion deserves a deeper look.

While there are many different reasons why Concord didn’t resonate with the audience and “stick the landing”, it is far more interesting to look at what Concord DIDN’T do rather than what it actually did. The reality is that any title that attempts to take on gaming titans like Fortnite, Overwatch, and Call of Duty has to do more than simply show up at the party with a couple of bags of chips and a 2 liter of soda… you have to be prepared to grow and become something truly NEW, because that is what the others did. Look at Fortnite… when it first released, it wasn’t exactly a global hit. The core game simply wasn’t very compelling, and it looked like Epic Games had wasted their time crafting a dud. But as PUBG surged in popularity, the developers realized they could essentially relaunch the Battle Royale portion of Fortnite as a free-to-play competitor, and the rest is history. The same could be said for any of the successful shooters that still boast robust player counts to this day… they didn’t stay what they were, remain where they were at, and wait for the audience to come to them. If they did, they would still be waiting in a very empty game lobby. Instead, they chose to make some challenging changes and dive into the deeper waters that hadn’t been fully explored yet in search of treasure that can only be obtained by pushing farther out.

Concord made several fatal mistakes leading up to the sinking of their battleship, but the one that doomed them to being erased from the gaming world was that they took EIGHT LONG YEARS to finally dive into the marketplace… and by the time they felt they were ready to be released onto store shelves, the game that they had made was no longer relevant. On the other-hand, the successful arena-shooter games like Fortnite and Overwatch chose to release in a less-than-perfect original state… but they continued to grow and develop right before our eyes, learning from their mistakes in real time and using constant updates as well as openly communicating with their fans that they were accepting their feedback and implementing fixes that would continue to make their game even better. And if I am being honest, that is one of the areas that I have long struggled with… the desire to get everything in my life “perfect” before I am ready to launch and serve the Lord in the manner that He has called me to.

As a person who has failed spectacularly on just about every level a human possibly could, I have grappled for most of my life with truly accepting and receiving the Lord’s grace for my past sins… and the idea that I could serve Him in any capacity after my own sinful decisions and broken past seemed both ridiculous and impossible. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15, I knew I was not worthy to be called His child… I was just hoping I could find a place in His kingdom where I could still be near Him, hidden from sight and only brought out on occasion as a cautionary tale to warn others from following in my footsteps. I deserved to be stripped of whatever destiny I once held and to be banished into the darkness… how could someone as unworthy as me serve in His kingdom?

Luke 15:17-21 But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

Here is the lesson I learned from the fall of Concord… the Lord called each of us knowing exactly what we were, what we currently are, and what we would do (Psalm 139:16). But He didn’t call us to STAY what we once were or remain hidden from view while we wait to get everything in our lives right before we can serve Him. Jesus saved the demoniac man from his literal demons and immediately commissioned him to go and share the good news with others (Mark 5:1-20), and He sent His disciples out as itinerant ministers long before His death on the cross and the issuance of the “Great Commission” (Luke 9:1-6). The Lord didn’t wait for any of them to reach some arbitrary level of “goodness” before they began to act on His behalf… they simply needed to leave behind what they once were and move forward in His grace into what He called them to start doing.

Concord wanted to get everything right before they released, but during those long eight years of development its’ competitors chose to begin their mission in a less-than-perfect state knowing they would continue to grow and improve in front of their audience AFTER their initial launch. And the same is true of us… if we are waiting to feel like we are “worthy” of serving Him in the capacity that He called us to, that day will probably never come. We will NEVER be “worthy” of anything that He has in store for us… that’s kind of the point. But if we make the choice to hide our light until we believe we are either more qualified or at least far enough away from our past mistakes for them to be forgotten, we will miss the actual audience we were meant to reach along the way (Matthew 5:14-16). We are ALL going to serve the Lord in an unworthy, unfinished, imperfect state… and we are still going to make mistakes along the way. The question is will we repent, leave those dark places behind, and move forward to shine His light anyways?

1 Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Peter went from denying Jesus multiple times (Luke 22) to preaching a message a few weeks later that saved thousands (Acts 2)… and His grace exists in the same way for us today. Let’s avoid the temptation to hide His light inside of us until we feel we are worthy enough to display it… that is the path to a Pharisee mindset. Instead, let’s allow His light to shine from our unworthy containers as brightly as we can, follow the calling He has placed on our hearts, and serve Him as His forgiven children no matter what darkness He called us out of (1 Peter 2:9-10)… every minute we wait is a minute we waste.

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