"Forced to Ship": Glen Schofield Blames Krafton for The Callisto Protocol's Problems

Glen Schofield, the designer who helped create Dead Space, has placed much of the blame for The Callisto Protocol's rough edges on Krafton, the South Korean company that owns PUBG and published his horror follow-up. In his account, the game was not finished when it shipped, and the decision to release it came from above rather than from the team building it.

The line that is drawing attention is blunt: "I was forced to ship the game." Schofield frames the problems as the result of management choices, not a lack of effort from the developers. For a creator to publicly point at the publisher behind his own project is a pointed move, and it puts a spotlight on how much control publishers hold over release timing.

The Callisto Protocol came out in late 2022 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Striking Distance Studios developed it under Schofield's leadership, and it was pitched as a spiritual successor to the survival horror series he helped launch at Visceral Games. The game drew a mixed critical response, and performance and polish complaints were part of the conversation around its launch.

Schofield's comments add to a longer debate about business calendars overriding development schedules in the industry. Krafton's side of the story is not part of the material available here, so the claims should be read as one executive's account of what happened. We will update this piece if the company responds.