The Callisto Protocol studio lays off more employees, but 'remains operational'
Krafton has confirmed another round of layoffs at Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, but says it remains operational and that the cuts will not impact any projects currently in the works.
The layoffs were first reported late last week by multiple former employees on LinkedIn: One said "most of the devs were laid off," while another reported "lots of layoffs" at the studio and a third said "many other great colleagues" had been let go. Krafton, the parent company of Striking Distance Studios, declined to share specific numbers but confirmed in a statement provided to PC Gamer that layoffs had been made.
"Striking Distance Studios has reduced the size of its team to remain agile, which creates a sustainable environment for the studio at its current stage of development," a representative said. "The studio remains operational, and these changes will not impact any planned ongoing support. No further changes are planned at this time."
This is the second round of layoffs at Striking Distance, which put 32 people out of work in August 2023, not long after the release of The Callisto Protocol's first and only story expansion. Despite its pedigree—Striking Distance was headed up by Dead Space executive producer Glen Schofield—the survival horror game failed to make a big splash with players, and fell well short of Krafton's sales expectations. Schofield left Striking Distance in September 2023, a little over a month after the first round of layoffs.
Striking Distance's follow-up game, the top-down shooter Redacted, landed with even less of an impact, amassing an all-time peak concurrent player count on Steam of just 169. The studio hasn't announced anything new since then, but as noted by 80lv, a handful of employees have said on LinkedIn that early work on something new has begun: Lead gameplay programmer George Coomber wrote that he's "leading a team of 12 gameplay engineers to prototype an action game in Unreal 5."
The layoffs at Striking Distance follow recent cuts at Bossa Studios, Liquid Swords, Iron Galaxy, BioWare, and engine maker Unity, which themselves are merely the latest in a long line of devastating layoffs stretching back to at least the beginning of 2023. Announcing the cuts at Bossa, studio co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Olifiers said the industry-wide bloodshed is not a "phase" but instead the new normal: "A fundamental transformation of the games industry, a reshape of how games are made and by what kinds of teams."