Glen Schofield says The Callisto Protocol reached players three months earlier than the schedule he expected. In an Oct. 8 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the former head of Striking Distance Studios said publisher Krafton chose a December 2022 launch after he had been promised a March 2023 release.
“I was forced to ship the game,” Schofield said. He described the decision as especially damaging because the studio was still absorbing COVID-era disruptions. Team members repeatedly fell ill, remote work slowed communication, and parts of the original design, including bosses, levels and an enemy, were cut.
GamesIndustry.biz said it contacted Krafton for comment and would update its report if the company responded. The account in the interview is Schofield’s version of how the project’s final stretch unfolded.
A studio stretched beyond development
Schofield said Striking Distance also had to build publishing and marketing capabilities for a physical single-player release because Krafton lacked that infrastructure. He put the added cost of a PlayStation 4 version, alongside PlayStation 5, at $20 million and said the cross-generation mandate complicated development during a hardware shortage.
