The Callisto Protocol was released too early and content was cut says director-Adam Starkey-Entertainment – Metro

The Callisto Protocol didn’t exactly land (Krafton)

The director behind The Callisto Protocol has spoken out about development issues on the project, along with abandoned plans for a sequel.

When it was first announced in 2020, the prospect of a spiritual successor to Dead Space from creator Glen Schofield was met with widespread optimism.

Sadly, the end product was the rather underwhelming The Callisto Protocol. Developed by Striking Distance Studios, the survival horror project impressed in terms of visuals, but it was lacking when it came to actual scares or compelling gameplay.

Almost two years after it launched, Schofield has unpacked the issues the game faced behind the scenes, claiming it came out three months earlier than originally planned.

‘I wanted about three and half more months,’ Schofield said during an interview. ‘I was led to believe for about three, four months, that that was the way it was going to be.

‘In October or September of 2021, I was told [by publisher Krafton] that ‘you’re going to get the time, no regrets.’ That was the term that was being used, ‘no regrets’, put whatever you want in the game.’

Schofield and his team at Striking Distance spent the Christmas of 2021 coming up with new ideas for The Callisto Protocol, in light of this encouragement. By January, however, Krafton apparently had changed its tune and wanted the game shipped in December 2022.

‘I was like, ‘it’s not going to get done and it’s going to cost you more money’,’ Schofield told YouTube channel Dan Allen Gaming. ‘It’s not like it will cost you less money because you’re getting it out three months sooner, no because if I just kept it on the way it was going, I wouldn’t have to add anybody. But if you want it done, I got to accelerate everything by three and a half months, which means I need to jam people on here.’

Asked if he would have done anything differently, Schofield said he would have pushed back on the release date. ‘I would have put my foot down,’ he said. ‘I’m not shipping it. If you want the game to ship, you come and take over the studio.’

Shortly after the game launched, Schofield claimed Krafton had ‘started ignoring’ Striking Distance as they worked on patches and DLC. He also said the company lacked the experience to nurture a new IP beyond PUBG, adding: ‘What new IPs need around them is some steady guys, but the truth is they were so new at the time – they didn’t have any new evergreen-type games.’

The Callisto Protocol failed to meet Krafton’s lofty sales expectations, making a sequel unlikely, but Schofield believes it deserves a follow-up considering the amount of content they had to cut from the project.

‘The fact they’re not making it is ridiculous,’ Schofield said. ‘Because Callisto, we had to cut two and a half bosses out of it. I had to cut three or four enemies out of it.’

Elsewhere in the interview, Schofield described 2021 as ‘the worst year in development of my life’, due to the COVID pandemic and a slew of resignations at Striking Distance, both due to sickness and ‘the great resignation’ phenomena at the time.

‘I did not even think we’d get the game done,’ he said. ‘And we’re cutting stuff to get it out. We added some stuff back in in the end. Freed up some time – not time, freed up some people. But you’re right, there should be a sequel.’

As for what was planned for a sequel, Schofield said there was a story concept where side character Dani Nakamura was the lead. Another idea, however, brought back original protagonist Jacob Lee, who was voiced by Josh Duhamel.

‘I wanted to bring back Josh. I actually wanted to act like he was dead, and start off with a different character, and then halfway through this character dies, and they’re like ‘well, we know one guy’, and then you surprisingly bring him back,’ he added.

Schofield left Striking Distance in September last year, following a wave of redundancies at the studio. He was replaced by Steve Papoutsis, but it’s unclear what the team is working on now.

While it’s clear The Callisto Protocol went through unfortunate circumstances, it’s difficult to say whether it would have been a vastly better game if it had been given an extra three months in the oven.

The Callisto Protocol, however, did at least receive some DLC titled Final Transmission, which wrapped up the game’s story.

The Callisto Protocol had plenty of gore (Krafton)

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