The Callisto Protocol is not expected to meet its target goal which is now casting doubts about a sequel game getting made. A report on M-K-Odyssey (via DSOG) shows that its publisher, Krafton, paid Striking Distance Studios $162 million over the course of three years to develop the action-horror space game. Samsung Securities said in a report that “The company expected cumulative sales of 5 million copies, but considering the current sales ranking, cumulative sales of 2 million copies will not be easy until this year.”
The Callisto Protocol had a rocky start and was nicknamed The Stuttering Protocol when it launched with massive stuttering due to caching issues. Many stuttering issues were resolved by a quick round of updates shortly after release but the game was still considered poorly optimized for PC. The game also received criticism over the developer’s decision to lock about a dozen death animations behind a season pass but Striking Distance Studios CEO Glen A. Schofield did say this was because they were still in development and planned as additions to the game.
It is not impossible that another game could be made, and perhaps this game could gain more sales through discounts and other promotional strategies, but even if this one surpasses the 2 million units sold mark that is still under half of what was expected. It currently has a mixed rating on Steam with over 20,000 user reviews. While many do give it praise for its visual and audio aspects there remain many criticisms of gameplay and technical issues. Steam has discounted the game by 20% to $47.99 for the base version, and $63.99 for the deluxe, until January 19. However, that discount might not be enough to incentivize potential buyers since the Dead Space Remake will launch a week later on January 27 and they may prefer to wait it out for that game instead.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →They failed at the inception phase imho. The sales pitch of this game basically sounded like this to me:
"Hey, do you want an off brand Dead Space?"
I never heard why should I be interested in this game beyond that. "We made Dead Space, and we are making another game, are you in?" No, tell me about the game first, don't tell me that you made a good game once upon a time.
It's as if Remedy promoted Alan Wake by saying: We made Max Payne, and we will make another game. That's not something you build your entire marketing on, that's something that appears in the third paragraph as a BTW.
A horror game with jump scares that is mostly melee combat? Just watching it was boring and repetitive. Toss in technical issues at the start on PC and forget about it.
I got it for xmas for ps5. It's Dead Space inside a space prison... and so far, yeah, handgun ammunition is pretty scarce so it's a lot of "beat the space zombie with the club, until a button prompt appears for you to make a headshot".
So far I am very underwhelmed by this game, I am happy I did not pay money for it.
I wanted to get into this game but the way that it's launched has totally left me avoiding it, for now. I just hope that the DS remake launch goes well and I hope those folks are paying close attention to this in regard to what not to do for it.
I also hope that Glen and co. can learn from mistakes made with this game and are able to salvage the business to continue with more projects. I think SDS still has potential but this launch has dealt them a significant blow in moving forward.