While Striking Distance Studios’ The Callisto Protocol had lofty ambitions, it didn’t exactly pan out according to plan. After laying off more than 30 employees last month, the studio’s founder and boss, Glen Schofield, has now officially departed the company alongside two other high-level members.
- Related Reading: The Callisto Protocol’s Outdated Game Mechanics Drag It Down
This was confirmed by a representative of parent company Krafton who said Schofield has “decided to pursue new opportunities.” Alongside Schofield, Striking Distance’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer are also departing the studio, which Krafton clarifies as voluntary.
Taking over is Steve Papoutsis, who is the studio’s Chief Development Officer. Papoutsis was a member of EA’s Viscera Games studio that worked on the Dead Space franchise, which was co-created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey.
Striking Distance was founded in 2019 with their debut game The Callisto Protocol deemed as a spiritual successor to sci-fi horror game Dead Space. Unfortunately, the game didn’t exactly set the world on fire, with our own review stating that there is fun to be had even with the “sometimes enragingly-unfair fights and odd story pacing.”
Back in June, we managed to catch up with Schofield and talk about The Callisto Protocol’s Final Transmission DLC, which you can read about here.
Update: Krafton has reached out and sent over a press release announcing the transition, as well as Schofield’s complete statement.
After successfully founding Striking Distance Studios, Glen Schofield has decided to pursue new opportunities. Steve Papoutsis, who previously served as Chief Development Officer and General Manager for SDS, Chief Operating Officer at Baobab Studios, and Vice President, General Manager, and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts, has been appointed CEO of the studio.
There is no better person than Steve to guide SDS through this transition. His long professional collaboration with Glen extends all the way back to when they first worked together at Crystal Dynamics in the late ’90s before reuniting at Visceral Games.
Glen’s contributions during his time at KRAFTON have been invaluable. He built an ace team of talents at SDS and set a high standard for the work they did together every day. We’re confident in the team’s continued success because of the significant impact Glen has had, and for that we owe him our deepest gratitude.
Here’s Glen Schofield’s complete statement sent out via the press release.
“Creating Striking Distance Studios has been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a game close to my heart. While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands. Steve and I go way back to working at Visceral Games. I saw how successful he was in taking the reins after my departure then and how he continued the studio’s success and growth. That’s how I know he’s the one to lead the studio into its next chapter.”
We have been carefully planning for the transition to ensure a smooth handover and uninterrupted operations. Striking Distance Studios is committed to supporting its incredibly talented team. Our staff remains a top priority during this transition as they’re the backbone of our success. The studio’s plans remain unaffected, and its focus is to continue producing exceptional content.
We wish Striking Distance all the best in their next project whatever it might be.
Source: Bloomberg