Glen Schofield says he was promised more time for The Callisto Protocol

While we were hoping for a spiritual successor to Dead Space, Striking Distance Studios’ The Callisto Protocol didn’t leave a huge impact on horror gaming. I didn’t mind it personally, but according to director Glen Schofield, the team was under pressure to deliver ahead of schedule.

In a recent video from Dan Allen Gaming, the titular host sits down with Schofield to discuss his pretty lengthy career in the industry. One thing that did crop up in conversation was the development problems of The Callisto Protocol. That specific topic begins around the 12:32 mark in the below video.

Without mincing words, when asked whether more time was needed to complete the game, Schofield replies – with slightly tired eyes – “yes, I did.” He goes on to then say he wanted another three and a half months, adding that he was “led to believe” that that was going to be the case for the project. Alas, things didn’t turn out that way, with the higher-ups insisting on a December 2022 release date.

“It’s going to cost you more.”

Schofield then makes a pretty interesting point about how rushing games out isn’t an effective way to save money, saying that it actually costs a studio or publisher more. He explains that, as well as struggling to finish developing The Callisto Protocol in the allocated time period, it would necessitate him bringing on a lot more people to get the job done (30-40 instead of 20, he says). Hence, costs simply go up. Not to mention the additional expense of having to fix a broken game post-release, but that’s just my take.

Add onto that the impact it had on Schofield’s health. Dan Allen says how stressful a job in the video game industry must be, particularly in that kind of situation. The director insists that he still enjoys what he does, though he does add that he’s not sure how much more of it he could take, given that his career began in the early 1990s. It also seems that health concerns were one of the reasons he eventually left the company.

It’s a shame The Callisto Protocol was something of a let-down, especially upon release. As I said, I did quite enjoy it, but I played it after the fact, once it had been patched and fixed up. Sadly, the resultant middling reception (the game has a review score of “mixed” on Steam) meant that Striking Distance had to lay off 32 employees last August. On the plus side, it looks like the studio may be working on a new game.