After disappointing sales and DLC, The Callisto Protocol studio has laid off 32 people

The Callisto Protocol, the new sci-fi horror shooter from Striking Distance Studio

(Image credit: Striking Distance Studios)

Following scattered reports of layoffs at The Callisto Protocol developer, Striking Distance Studios and parent company Krafton have confirmed that 32 people have been let go.

"Striking Distance Studios and Krafton have implemented strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success. Unfortunately, these changes have impacted 32 employees," Krafton says in a statement to GamesRadar+. "Honoring the invaluable contributions of each departing team member with material support in the form of outplacement services and meaningful severance packages is our top priority during this difficult moment."

In our The Callisto Protocol review, we called it "an impressive game derailed by unforgiving combat," and that sentiment was pretty widely echoed among other professional critics and players at launch. An extensive series of post-launch patches improved the game's combat and technical issues, but reports of poor sales and a final bit of story DLC that fans likened to "IP abandonment" meant that the game never really got its feel-good turnaround story. CEO Glen Schofield also courted controversy prior to the game's release with a tweet appearing to glorify crunch culture, for which he later apologized.

The Callisto Protocol was a valiant attempt, but it didn't manage to dethrone Dead Space among the best horror games out there.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.