The Callisto Protocol "no longer takes place in the PUBG universe"

The Callisto Protocol, the new survival horror game from Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield, no longer has any direct connections to the PUBG universe.

"FYI The Callisto Protocol is its own story and world," Schofield says in a tweet. "It no longer takes place in the PUBG universe. It was originally part of the PUBG timeline, but grew into its own world. PUBG is awesome, and we will still have little surprises for fans, but TCP is its own world, story, and universe."

The Callisto Protocol is in development at Striking Distance Studios, a subsidiary of Krafton, the South Korean company which publishes the various iterations of PUBG.

Krafton started trying to expand the lore of PUBG a few years ago with a series of mysterious story videos. The Callisto Protocol was announced in 2020, some time after that initiative began.  Schofield said at the time that the game's "connection with PUBG is not gonna be really deep but there will be little connections here and there."

PUBG's expanded lore never seemed to capture much interest, and the Callisto Protocol's futuristic, sci-fi setting seemed like an odd fit for the series' abstract military aesthetic from the beginning. Part of me still wants to know what that connection would've ended up looking like, but maybe it's better that the team at Striking Distance has full freedom to take the setting where they want it to go.

If you're not looking to sleep tonight, a number of new screenshots from The Callisto Protocol were published earlier this week.