Asia Tech Wire (Sep 4) -- Sony is pulling its multiplayer shooter Concord amid the popularity of the Chinese game Black Myth: Wukong.

Sony has announced that it will cease operations of Concord on Friday, September 6, and will refund players in full.

Firewalk Studios, a unit of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), developed Concord for eight years at a cost of more than $150 million.

Ryan Ellis, game director at Firewalk Studios, said in a blog post the game's "initial launch didn't land the way we'd intended."

When it debuted on Aug. 24, only a maximum of 697 people were playing the game online on Steam.

Concord was available on Steam for $40, with a buyout system rather than the popular free-to-play.

Many gamers felt that the pricing of the game was too high, and the lack of excitement in the game itself led to less-than-expected sales upon launch.

According to SteamDB, Concord saw a maximum of only 697 concurrent players after its launch, a far cry from the 2.42 million of Black Myth: Wukong, which debuted at almost the same time.