The Callisto Protocol: Game Director was forced to release early

The Callisto Protocol can hardly be described as a success story. The sort-of sequel to Dead Space was released in 2022, garnered more than just praise and even caused Glen Schofield to leave the studio Striking Distance. Now, a few months later, he is speaking frankly about the development circumstances of the horror title.

The Striking Distance team had a whopping $100 million at their disposal to develop The Callisto Protocol. That means Glen Schofield had a lot of money at his disposal, and a large part of it came from PUBG publisher Krafton. But as the game director now explains in an interview with Dan Allen, the partnership did not only bring advantages.

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For example, Krafton had given Schofield and his team conflicting messages about timing. In October or September 2021, he was told that he did not have to compromise and could put as many resources into the project as he needed. Accordingly, he spent the Christmas holidays this year drafting ideas together with other members of the team.

But in January 2022, the rude awakening came: Krafton demanded the release in December 2022. Schofield insisted that the investor would not save any money this way, on the contrary. In order to meet the deadline, he would have to hire significantly more people, which of course again involved immense costs.

In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the studio hard. In some cases, the entire VFX department was out of action, then the animation segment employees followed. In addition, a total of 49 people left Striking Distance in 2021 because the pay at other studios was significantly higher. 2021 was the worst year of his career.

Looking back, Glen Schofield says he had to put his foot down. Four bosses and two enemy types were removed from The Callisto Protocol in order to meet the release date. Whether these circumstances were ultimately responsible for the failure remains to be seen.