The Callisto Protocol Reportedly Missed Sales Expectations - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 January 2023 / 3,286 Views
It appears The Callisto Protocol has missed the sales expectations of publisher KRAFTON and developer Striking Distance Studios, according to a report from K-Odyssey.
The report says the game cost 200 billion won (or about $162 million USD) to develop over a period of about three years. This figure does not include marketing.
KRAFTON had expected the game to sell five million units, according to the report. However, it appears the game will be missing this target by a large amount.
Samsung Securities has lowered its sale forecast to two million and says even the new forecast won't be easy to reach this year. Korea Investment & Securities lowered its forecast from four million to 2.1 million.
VGChartz' Paul Broussard in his review of The Callisto Protocol gave the game a 6.5/10 and says it "has some incredible potential, but could really benefit from more polish and a refocusing of priorities. The combat, when it’s clicking, is genuinely fantastic for a more action-driven horror title. But much of what is built around that combat lets it down: the pacing and atmosphere are largely non-existent; the level design, UI, and checkpoint system are very player-unfriendly; and there just aren’t enough set pieces and gameplay diversions to prevent the combat from getting somewhat repetitive by the game’s end."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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They must've been on crack to approve a $160m budget for a new IP in a niche genre from a studio that has never released a game before (even if the guys there have experience). Even $50m would've put them into AAA territory.
Remember when they tried to justify crunch. lol fuck you
I think you mean 162 million USD, not billion USD.
Game was not bad at all but I believe it was unfortunate that it was so close (and so similar) to the remake of Dead Space....
the real problem : the fps/slutter on the pc
dont know about the other version of the game, but for pc, when you see mixed or negative review on steam, its a instant stop selling until patch, this is still not fixed.
New IPs tend to have a harder time. Nostalgia sells, fortunately or unfortunately...
Sorry, but this game had abysmal WoM post release. Attributing its failure to being a new IP is a bit disingenuous. We had a new IP from a known developer ( Elden Ring) that sold amazingly, while a new IP from another known developer ( Midnight Suns) that failed similar to Calisto. So at this point, they just need to make a good game.
Certainly a valid point. Well said.
Shitty reviews will do that.
Callisto Protocol really IS the spiritual successor to Dead Space.
DS was sunk in part by its publisher's unrealistic and frankly insane commercial expectations, too.
Should have play tested the game first or made demos,
The gameplay was absolute trash
That sux. And peole wonder why devs don't take risk, because people won't support games like this.
What risk? They were banking on peoples nostalgia for an old IP and advertising to be the next dead space. They were banking on the familiar not a new concept. Sunset Overdrive is a game that took a risk of being a new idea and failing. Same with The Wonderful 101. This is just hey remember the thing well we promise to be just like that old thing!
It"s still a solid game. But the issue with social media, if at launch something is wrong, it spreads like wild fire, is labelled as negative and immediately shunned.
Tbf, we've been living with games coming out busted and broken for a long time now, and we still don't like seeing it that way, hence why ppl are both against crunch and announcing projects too early.
had this game come out not busted on day 1 and with the extra animations included (you know, like it used to be in the old days of gaming), then the reaction would have been positive, instead of negative.
Also it's not a social media problem, go straight back to Victorian era, and if someone at a shop was selling bad bread or food or products, ppl would spread word of mouth, that's just how we work as humans.
