Striking Distance Studios, the developer behind sci-fi horror The Callisto Protocol, is on the hunt for new talent to join its AAA team. According to current job listings on the studio’s site, lucky applicants will get to work on a “brand new, unannounced UE5 [Unreal Engine 5] title.” Considering The Callisto Protocol arrived on both PS5 and Xbox, we can imagine it’ll be a similar deal this time around, though this has yet to be confirmed.
The listings, spotted by industry analyst ‘MauroNL’, involve nine open positions covering everything from animation to engineering, to UI. It’s currently unclear what sort of direction the studio will take its next venture, following founder and former CEO Glen Schofield’s departure back in September. However, current studio head Steve Papoutsis has been involved in multiple major IPs, including Battlefield, 007, and most importantly Dead Space – the series Schofield co-created.
Having worked alongside Schofield at Visceral Games, it’s not hard to imagine that much of Papoutsis’s pedigree will seep into this mystery project. Maybe it’ll make another attempt to make one of the best horror games, or maybe there’ll be less ‘boo’ and more ‘pew-pew’.
The Callisto Protocol itself wasn’t the smash hit Striking Distance and parent studio Krafton expected it to be. Though we loved it over on the site, giving it a 9/10 in our The Callisto Protocol review, it made mixed impressions on critics further afield. Its Metacritic score sits at a very average 69, which for a game that reportedly cost over $160m to make clearly wasn’t ideal. After the game’s sales came in far lower than Krafton’s projections, Schofield left the studio last September.
A month prior to Schofield’s departure, Striking Distance laid off 32 employees. A statement given to IGN at the time notes that the decision was made as part of “strategic changes that realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success.” To see nine new positions go up just months later may seem rough, but to us it indicates that the studio has a better understanding of its needs and can now hire appropriately.
Hopefully, Striking Distance can hit the home run it failed to with The Callisto Protocol. With Schofield out of the picture, there’s every chance we may see something more original for its next outing, though it’s going to be a good while before we see it appear on our new PS5 games and new Xbox games lists.
If you’re after more news on upcoming games, it looks like there’s an “imminent” Death Stranding 2 announcement you should read up on. Meanwhile, check out when we can expect Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown to finally arrive on consoles.