The launch of The Callisto Protocol hasn’t been as smooth as perhaps we as fans, as well as the developers at Striking Distance Studios, and publisher Krafton had hoped they would be. Many had hoped and longed for the game to be the second coming of Dead Space, given it was the product of many of the hands responsible for EA’s acclaimed, beloved, and soon-to-be-remade sci-fi horror classic, but it wasn’t to be with the game currently sitting on a 76 Metacritic score.
The result, underwhelming at face value, appears to have an even greater impact for both the developer and the publisher, with Krafton’s stocks taking a fairly substantial hit as a result of the less-than-stellar reviews. Dr. Serkan Toto, the CEO of Japan game industry consultancy kantangames.com, has managed to get some insight into the situation, sharing via Twitter the following interesting tidbit about the state of Krafton following the clearly less than internally forecast. Toto said,
Stock in Krafton, the company behind The Callisto Protocol studio Striking Distance, closed down -8.41% today in Seoul.
[The Callisto Protocol]’s metacritic score is in the mid 70s, apparently too low for Krafton investors who were hoping the IP could become a new pillar for the PUBG company.
A commenter had suggested to Toto that this result was potentially in-line with recent trends for the company. Toto disagreed, saying, “Yes, but this [the drop] happened only today and there are no other events that I can see that could have triggered such a sharp drop.”
About Krafton:
We believe games will become the world’s most powerful medium.
Based on our creativity, steadfast dedication toward new challenges and technological development,
KRAFTON will further expand our original IPs and build immersive, virtual worlds, where our fans play together and share fun moments.
We will meet everyone in the world we are building.
Krafton Inc. is a South Korean video game holding company based in Bundang-gu, Seongnam. It was created in November 2018 to serve as the parent company for Bluehole Studio, but is now the parent company for Bluehold, PUBG Studios, The Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, the newly acquired Neon Giant, developers of The Ascent, and more. As the publisher continues to grow in size, the pressure of the releases stemming from it will also grow. We’ll soon see if the commercial success of The Callisto Protocol can exceed the critical acclaim, and hence help the stock trend back in a positive direction for the corporation.
The Callisto Protocol is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.