Glen Schofield, the co-creator of survival horror game Dead Space, has is leaving Striking Distance Studios. He will be replaced by current Chief Development Officer Steve Papoutsis as CEO. Schofield conceptualized Dead Space when he was with EA, before leaving the company and founding a couple of game studios. One of them is Striking Distance, where he created The Callisto Protocol, which people have been calling the spiritual successor to Dead Space since it was still in development. Like the older game, Callisto is also in the survival horror genre, except it was generally panned by critics.
Engadget’s Jessica Conditt was optimistic after playing an hour-long preview of the title, which turned out to be best portion of the game that suffered from glitches and unwieldy mechanics as a whole. Meanwhile, the Dead Space remake EA released shortly after Callisto’s launch won over critics and old fans alike.
Striking Distance Studios’ parent company Krafton, which had poured over $160 million into the game’s development, was originally hoping to sell 5 million copies of Callisto this year. However, it lowered its expectations to 2 million units after seeing how it performed in its first few weeks. The company likely won’t be able to recoup its losses and has laid off employees over the past months.
Krafton told Bloomberg, though, that Schofield’s departure is voluntary and that he intends to “pursue new opportunities.” Striking Distance’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer are also leaving the company voluntarily, the company said. It’s unclear where Schofield is headed next: His LinkedIn still lists the studio as his current place of employment. “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,” he said in a statement. “While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands.”
