Glen Schofield says The Callisto Protocol shipped 3 months early and got 86 patches

Glen Schofield says The Callisto Protocol launched in December 2022 three months earlier than he had been promised. In a GamesIndustry.biz interview, the director said he had expected a three-month extension for COVID-19 disruptions, which would have moved the release to March 2023.

Striking Distance Studios had worked on the game for around six months before the pandemic began. Remote meetings replaced face-to-face studio conversations, and illness periodically shut down the studio’s small team in Spain, including its rendering crew. Schofield said four to six people at the company were getting sick each month. He also said he had lost one of his best friends, and that protecting the team’s health had become more important than making the game.

According to Schofield, Krafton kept the December 2022 release date despite the extra time he says he had been promised. He said the shorter schedule meant levels, bosses, and enemies were removed from the finished game.

After finishing the DLC, Schofield said, he put out 86 patches, with work ranging from small changes to major fixes. He described the effort as getting the game closer to where he believed it needed to be, while also recalling that Krafton viewed it as a complete failure.

Schofield also described a possible follow-up built around a larger plague rather than a single outbreak. His concept placed it in a vast junkyard of spacecraft docked at a massive space station and would have brought back ideas cut from the first game.

What do you make of a game receiving 86 patches after Schofield says its release came three months early? Follow along for more stories about the development decisions behind survival-horror games like The Callisto Protocol on X, Bluesky, YouTube, Instagram, Steam, and Telegram.