Following layoffs last month
Dead Spaceco-creator Glen Schofield has departedThe Callisto Protocoldevelopers Striking Distance Studios in the wake of the underwhelming performance of their first game.
The Callisto Protocol launched in December, earning mixed reviews - particularly on PCwhere it launched with notable performance problems- that translated into lower-than-expected sales, with reports that publisher Krafton had lowered its expectations for the game from five million copies sold toless than half of that.
Despite later patches to fix its stuttering issues on PC and introduce new featuressuch as a New Game Plus mode, The Callisto Protocol struggled to regain much momentum, droppingits first and only bit of story DLCin June.
In-between, the game faced further criticism for its Contagion Mode in March - with players complaining about the need to pay for a hardcore mode and death animations - as well as Striking Distance coming under fire forallegedly leaving a number of developers out of the game’s credits.
Striking Distancelaid off more than 30 members of staff at the start of August, with Krafton saying the move would “realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success”.
Subsequently,Bloombergreports that Schofield has also now left the studio after “decid[ing] to pursue new opportunities”, with chief operating officer Stacey Hirata and chief financial officer Johnny Hsu similarly departing voluntarily.
Filling Schofield’s shoes as CEO is former chief development officer Steve Papoutsis, who previously worked with Schofield at Dead Space developer Visceral Games.
Schofield said that the changes wouldn’t affect the studio’s plans, and its “focus is to continue producing exceptional content”.
