Support NeoGAF

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Schofield – who founded Striking Distance in 2019 to create a new game in the PUBG universe, which evolved over time into The Callisto Protocol – has suggested he may be done directing games, due to the difficulty in finding financial backing.

"Game industry, it's tough out there," Schofield wrote on LinkedIn, explaining that an idea he had been working on with his daughter – herself a developer with eight years' experience – wasn't being picked up.

"Over the past eight months, I've been quietly working with my daughter, Nicole, on a new game idea. She came to me with it, and I immediately loved the idea. Something I hadn't seen before. We've been calling it a new sub-genre of horror—not just horror, but something more."

However, he explained: "We pulled the budget down to $17 million, built a prototype with a small, talented crew, and started taking meetings. People loved the concept. We got a lot of second and trhid meetings. But early feedback was 'get it to $10 million'. Lately, that number's dropped to $2-5 million.

"So last month, we decided to walk away. Some ideas are better left untouched than done cheap. We had a team of six here in the States and a full crew in the UK. Now, everyone's looking for work. They're all talented folks – if you're hiring, let me know."

Schofield concludes by saying he thinks AAA development "feels like it's a long ways away" for him, and that he'll go back to making art.

"I miss it all – the team, the chaos, the joy of building something for fans," he wrote. "I'm still around, making art, writing stories and ideas and still cheering the industry on. But maybe I've directed my last game. Who knows? If so, thank you [for] playing my games."

‘Maybe I’ve directed my last game’: Dead Space creator Glen Schofield says a new AAA game ‘feels a long ways away’ | VGC

Schofield also directed The Callisto Protocol, before leaving his studio after poor sales…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Gonzito]

Shame. I liked Callisto Protocol

 

[Peroroncino]

That is a bad photo, makes him look like an Orc without makeup.

Sad stuff, I know Callisto didn't pop off but it was a decent enough game, wish they could've gotten a chance at making 2.

 

[amigastar]

Too bad the game did not deliver the expectations it had.
I feel with Glen Schofield.

 

[roosnam1980]

CP is not a bad game , should be available at a low price.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Didn't Callisto Protocol cost like 100+ million? No wonder no one wants to invest. What are they doing with this money?

 

[justiceiro]

That is a bad photo, makes him look like an Orc without makeup

Why do you think the dead space protagonist has its face covered?

 

[simpatico]

This is a microcosm of the industry right now. We just got through such a bullish era when it comes to video game investment and budget. We were so in the moment I don't think anyone realized how crazy some of those dollar figures were. Now that we're all sober and post-boom, it's hard to imagine what it would take to go back. Might not see it again in our lifetimes.

 

[Hypereides]

The western AAA space has definitely taken a twisted turn somewhere along the way, that's for sure. I still find it hard to believe that these studios are supposed to be the same who rose to prominence during the 6th~7th gen. AAA tier management and their policies have really worked against them. Astronomical budgets. Botched dev cultures. Team size explosion. Design by commitee. Convoluted bureaucracy structures. Trendchasing over genuinity and authenticity. Terrible initiatives all around. Creativity and visions drown in that environment.

Its a double whammy when you take into account that questionable management is coupled with a new generation of AAA devs who don't seem to be on the same skill level, nor possess the same degree of talent, as the gen prior.

People can say what they want about Schofield, but there is no denying he was one of the key figures behind Dead Space and its definitely had its influence. EA misplayed that one franchise which had potential to go head-to-head with Resident evil.

 

[GudOlRub]

I actually finished Callisto yesterday. I tried to like the game but man the combat sucks ass, I could not get into it.
Shame EA iced Dead Space. I really would've loved to see DS4 in whatever form Glen proposed it a while back...

If you had told me 5 years ago that Konami would be happy with Silent Hill coming back and selling a couple million copies but EA would've canned Dead Space despite having the same performance I would've laughed at you.
Curious to see what'll happen to Battlefield once it inevitably fails to meet expectations if those rumored ones are true.
Perhaps EA will just become a full on sports dedicated publisher.

 

[Mr Hyde]

EA fucked up Dead Space and shelved it, instead of building on it and improve. Then they decided to fuck up Callisto by releasing Dead Space remake close to Callisto, hindering it's success. I bet it was to spite Schofield. Petty bastards.

 

[IAmRei]

this is why i recall when people start to beg for higher and higher graphic, someday it will stuck in the budget wall, too big to be fail. it's hard to avoid price rising and the scale cannot fall down because people chasing graphic too much since HD era. at the time, it won't take much because people still can tolerate video game graphic. but now is different, the standard of AAA is too high at the point people will only see high budget games over gameplay and presentation. it's not sustainable at this point, too big to fail, too much for starter, and in the end, too much stakes for studio to handle when it's not meet the expectation. I said it many times, it won't be reachable in some future., but people are laughing in HD era back then. now at some points, my calculation was right. fail once in AAA, studio is getting compromised much.

 

[Esppiral]

Don't burn your budget on known faces and focus all on making the game as best as possible.

 

[xrnzaaas]

EA fucked up Dead Space and shelved it, instead of building on it and improve. Then they decided to fuck up Callisto by releasing Dead Space remake close to Callisto, hindering it's success. I bet it was to spite Schofield. Petty bastards.

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

Schofield's not going to get funding for another big budget survival horror, not after everyone saw how he wasted a ton of money developing Callisto Protocol and focusing on wrong things.

 

[GudOlRub]

EA fucked up Dead Space and shelved it, instead of building on it and improve. Then they decided to fuck up Callisto by releasing Dead Space remake close to Callisto, hindering it's success. I bet it was to spite Schofield. Petty bastards.

I question that argument. Did releasing DS close to Callisto actually hurt its performance?
I'd argue it didn't tbh, especially considering how hard Callisto bombed. There are no official numbers afaik but there are reports of DS Remake selling around 2-3 million copies which is on par with SH2 Remake and Alan Wake 2's sales so to me at least looks like the game did as well as one should expect.

Personally I was more hyped for Callisto but after seeing all those performance issues it had at release I decided to hold off on it. Bought Dead Space on day 1, don't regret any of my decisions on this.

The problem here is that every one of these goddamn publishers and their mothers expect their horror games to reach Resident Evil numbers which is fucking absurd, not realising that RE is an exception, not the rule.
If you begin developing a AAA horror game expecting it to sell at least as well as a Resident Evil game then you're doomed to fail from the start.

And there's also the question of budget, Bloober is based in Poland for example, Motive is based in Canada so it's quite likely Dead Space Remake cost more to make than other recent AAA horror games but then that's a budget problem, not a sales problem. Considering horror is a niche genre and all, these games are still managing to sell a couple million copies in a year or two, publishers considering that a failure shows you how fucking delusional they are nowadays.

 

[Hypereides]

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

Schofield's not going to get funding for another big budget survival horror, not after everyone saw how he wasted a ton of money developing Callisto Protocol and focusing on wrong things.

I dunno, man. I can definitely see EA pulling some shit like that to undercut the competition.

 

[Punished Miku]

I really enjoyed CP. Not a flawless game by any means, but an extremely impressive debut for a brand new studio. Most can't get to that level on game 1.

 

[WoJ]

I played CP at launch and really enjoyed it. I thought I read that it sold around 2 million copies. And this was before the deep discounting the game gets now. If 2 million copies sold can't sustain a new horror IP, which is a niche genre anyways, the economics of the game industry are out of whack.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I dunno, man. I can definitely see EA pulling some shit like that to undercut the competition.

I think it's just the case of EA noticing there's some interest again and ordering the remake of Dead Space (and it turned out really well - it wasn't a typical low effort cash grab).

It's just like Konami decided to bring back Suikoden after Eiyuden Chronicle announcement got a super positive reception.

 

[Sebastian1295]

CP just looks like a game you play and then you realize as you're playing it that you'd rather go play deadspace remake instead. It's an offbrand deadspace that lacks polish.

 

[Instant_Classic]

Game industry is only going to get tougher to break into and compete in the AAA space.

 

[analog_future]

Callisto Protocol was a fine game for a first entry from a new studio. I would've loved to see what they could've done with a sequel.

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

Shame I enjoyed Calisto Protocol. Obviously it has its flaws but it's a decent game.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Random aside, I'd love a Dead Space Metroidvania. Not everything needs a huge, blown out budget.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Whoever signed off on that melee combat doomed the project. We will see how Chronos: The New Dawn fares. Bloober Team seem smart enough not to deviate too much from Dead Space's combat.

 

[rm082e]

Dead Space 1 and 2 are two of my all time favorites. I will always appreciate his contributions to that series.

 

[schaft0620]

The Callisto Protocol is one of the most underrated games of this generation.

 

[Arsic]

$17M seems reasonable in this day and age.

Someone should pick it up. I imagine he's learned his lesson on combat after Callisto lol.

His next game should be a banger.

 

[TGO]

Didn't Callisto Protocol cost like 100+ million? No wonder no one wants to invest. What are they doing with this money?

160m, ironically with other game budgets that release after and the actual quality of them...
That was cheap

 

[Fafalada]

People can say what they want about Scoffield, but there is no denying he was one of the key figures behind Dead Space and its definitely had its influence.

The thing is - going off his games since DS (especially CP) it looks more like the parts he had influence over were all the worst part of the first game too.

EA misplayed that one franchise which had potential to go head-to-head with Resident evil.

Well - they played the standard 'AAA' playbook from DS2,3 Remake and even CP for that matter. It just came at the expense of what made the IP unique in the first place.

 

[Deerock71]

That is a bad photo, makes him look like an Orc without makeup.

 

[AJUMP23]

Sobering thought to know that at some point you will be making your last game.

What was Miyamoto's last game? I think Koyzumi has already left game development and is more of a leadership role in Nintendo. Kojima maybe has 2 games left. How old is Miyazaki he can only have a few left. Todd maybe has one elder scrolls left.

 

[Durin]

Too bad to hear, but I honestly think the guy would make better games at a smaller budget.

All the fidelity poured into Callisto didn't make it a better game than even Dead Space 3.

 

[simpatico]

Hard to feel horror when you know every enemy becomes a few minute boxing match. Just took the suspense. Making it melee focused was a terrible idea because it makes you not scared of being very close to the monsters.