‘The Callisto Protocol’ director leaves the studio he founded
Glen Schofield, the director of The Callisto Protocol and the CEO of Striking Distance Studios, has left the developer to “pursue new opportunities”.
Bloomberg reported that chief operating officer Stacey Hirata and chief financial officer Johnny Hsu will also be leaving Striking Distance Studios. A spokesperson for parent company Krafton maintained that these were voluntary decisions from the three individuals.
In a statement, Schofield described his departure as “bittersweet” but added that “the studio is in excellent hands” with chief development officer Steve Papoutsis now stepping up to take over his role.
Earlier this year, Krafton revealed that The Callisto Protocol had missed out on its expected sales statistics. The publisher forecasted that the game would sell five million copies, yet in January, it was coursing towards a total of two million copies.
Then, Striking Distance Studios laid off almost a fifth of its developers in August as a result of “strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities”.
The Callisto Protocol‘s expansion, Final Transmission, arrived in June, but it was not met with particularly positive reviews from players. Final Transmission appeared to exacerbate technical issues with the base game and on the story itself, one said “they are essentially selling the ending cutscene for £12”.
Last September, Schofield was placed under pressure for posting a tweet that seemingly glorified crunch culture.
“I only talk about the game during an event. We are working 6 to 7 days a week, nobody’s forcing us. Exhaustion, tired, COVID, but we’re working. Bugs, glitches, performance fixes, One last pass through audio. 12 to 15 hours days. This is gaming. Hard work. Lunch, dinner, working. You do it ‘cos you love it,” he said.
The response to the tweet was overwhelmingly critical, so Schofield deleted the statement and apologised for giving off the wrong impression with his words.
In other gaming news, Larian Studios shared that the third patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 will be delayed by one day to guarantee the coherence and quality of the changes.
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Imogen Donovan
NME
