The creator of Dead Space says Krafton was forced to ship the Callisto protocol: "We have beaten COVID"

Krafton

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Creator of Dead Space and the Callisto Protocol

"I had to ship the game. I'm mad at myself, no doubt about it. I was shocked by the decision, because we had the damn covid. A million people died in America. I lost one of my best friends. Every month, four to six people in my company were getting sick.

There was a time when our small team was shut down in Spain. It goes through a small place like that and you lose your rendering team for a while. The most important thing you're worried about, not that you normally aren't, is the health of your team. Making a game became secondary because this is about life. It's about humanity" via Gameindustry.biz.

Schofield has a history in the professional gaming industry. He was the creator and executive producer of Dead Space, but he also worked as a producer on three Call of Duty games as well as Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Cain.

Callisto Protocol, developed under Crafton by Striking Distance Studios, failed to meet some expectations after Crafton sunk $100 million into the product. In terms of critical reception, it was fairly average, although we gave it a very decent 79 in our Callisto Protocol review.

One important thing to sink it in, though? Frame stuttering, which led to some wildly negative reviews at launch, to Schofield's credit, is something that could probably have been fixed with a few more months of development work. Or rather, midway through development, don't be overwhelmed by the horrors of a global pandemic.

This led to layoffs at the studio in August 2023, followed by another wave in February 2025. Ultimately, Schofield retired from video games altogether in 2026 after his next project failed to raise the necessary funding, stating that "I may have directed my last game."

Later in an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Schofield stated, "[Krafton] thought Callisto was a complete failure. What they didn't know was that while everyone was complaining, we were doing patches. I waited until I finished all the DLC and released 86 patches.

"That was a lot of damn work. Every day you log in, you are making a difference. Some are small, others are huge. It was all about getting it back to where it should be."

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Harvey's history with games began when he first begged his parents for a subscription to World of Warcraft at the age of 12. Cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brains and a big crush on G'raha Tia. He started his career as a freelancer and wrote for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine and of course PC Gamer. He sinks his teeth into anything that sounds interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, ghosts, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and the odd indie title. He also plays a TTRPG rack in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favorite system is, he has too many.

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