Glen Scholfield, the founding father of Striking Distance Studios, the staff behind The Callisto Protocol, has reportedly left the studio attributable to him “pursuing a brand new journey.”
The studio might be turned over to the now former chief improvement officer, Steve Papoutsis, who Schofield has labored with for years, together with throughout his time at Visceral Studios.
In an announcement despatched from Krafton, “there is no such thing as a higher individual than Steve to information SDS by this transition,” and of Schofield, Krafton says his “contributions throughout his time at Krafton have been invaluable. He constructed an ace staff of skills at SDS and set a excessive normal for the work they did collectively each day. We’re assured within the staff’s continued success due to the numerous impression Glen has had.”
For Schofield’s half, he mentioned “creating Putting Distance Studios has been an unimaginable journey and I’m so happy with what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a sport near my coronary heart. Whereas pursuing a brand new journey is thrilling, leaving SDS is bittersweet, however I do know the studio is in glorious palms.
Steve and I am going approach again to working at Visceral Video games. I noticed how profitable he was in taking the reins after my departure then and the way he continued the studio’s success and development. That’s how I do know he’s the one to guide the studio into its subsequent chapter.”
When Putting Distance Studios was first revealed, there was lots of pleasure within the air. Schofield has a robust observe file because the creator of Dead Space, and what’s extra the studios first game would be another horror title.
There was additionally lots of warning, because it was first meant to be part of the PUBG world with the studio being created in collaboration with Krafton, however as soon as that was shrugged off and The Callisto Protocol started to take form in gamers minds, lots of people acquired much more excited.
Then The Callisto Protocol launched, and the joy for the sport was not matched by the actual gameplay. It didn’t land with gamers in the best way Putting Distance or Krafton would have favored.
There’s additionally already been layoffs at Putting Distance attributable to The Callisto Protocol’s poor launch, and this information now makes any fan of the sport marvel what’ll occur to it.
Putting Distance has boasted about how it had years of content planned, Schofield himself even spoke about wanting to make a sequel.
Now, it’ll be curious to see if Putting Distance continues to work with the IP, or switches to one thing new. Whereas The Callisto Protocol might not have landed with everybody, it confirmed that the staff at Putting Distance is extremely gifted.
Hopefully the studio is ready to discover its footing in its subsequent mission, no matter that finally ends up being. Based on Krafton, it has “been rigorously planning for the transition to make sure a easy handover and uninterrupted operations. Putting Distance Studios is dedicated to supporting its extremely gifted staff.
Our employees stays a high precedence throughout this transition as they’re the spine of our success. The studio’s plans stay unaffected, and its focus is to proceed producing distinctive content material.”
As for Schofield, whereas earlier in his profession it was straightforward to say that gamers ought to look to what he does subsequent, following this Callisto disaster, it simply doesn’t appear that straightforward anymore.
Article up to date to incorporate official statements from Glen Schofield and Krafton.
Supply – [Bloomberg, Krafton PR]
