Hailing from PUBG publisher Krafton and the creators of the celebrated “Dead Space” franchise, the big-budget outer space horror game “The Callisto Protocol” appears to be seen as a flop by its publisher.
According to Korean news site K-Odyssey (via Playstation Lifestyle), Krafton expected to sell at least five million copies of the game – but due to its poor performance, it is not expected to hit two million until later in the year.
Combined with what the outlet dubs a costly $162 million production budget, it would appear no expense was spared for this new IP in a niche genre.
The game challenges players to escape a maximum security prison on Jupiter’s moon Callisto in the year 2320 after a mysterious outbreak begins transforming its inmates into monstrous creatures.
Josh Duhamel lends his likeness to the main character in a story that has drawn comparisons to the original “Dead Space,” albeit all dubbing ‘Callisto’ an inferior copy.
Problems began at launch, with the title suffering multiple performance issues that took weeks to fix, whilst reviews were very mixed on the game and contained a lot of harsh criticism levelled at the game’s combat and mechanics.
Ultimately its Metacritic score landed in the mid-70s, which seemed to kill any chance of this becoming a potential franchise launcher. Krafton’s stock price took a hit following reviews of the game being published.
“The Callisto Protocol” is now available for Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC.
