The Callisto Protocol Lowers its Projected Sales Figure

Striking Distance Studios, developers of last year’s ‘The Callisto Protocol’, have just announced that their projected sales figure has lowered from 5 million to 2 million. This is essentially the number of copies that are expected to be sold within the game’s lifecycle. This is set from a combination of previous figures, surveys, and marketing that gives developers a rough idea of how many people will end up buying the game. Unfortunately for ex-Dead Space creator Glen Schofield, however, the estimated amount of copies shipped fell way below target. Initially set at an ambitious 5 million, the developers have now lowered this to 2 million- which seems to indicate that the game is likely hovering around the 1 million mark after over a month of being on store shelves.

But why did The Callisto Protocol sell so poorly? There are a lot of factors- with one of the biggest being the disappointing reviews prior to release. Receiving a middling critic score of 70 on Metacritic, reviewers felt that the game wasn’t very scary (despite being a horror game), played like a hallway simulator, and lacked an interesting story or setting. Essentially, this was described as a hollow shell of the previous Dead Space games. That’s not a great way to draw in customers, which makes the disappointing sales figure more believable. On top of this, this expected sales number was quite ambitious- even with the huge marketing push and hype behind the project. This is especially considering the new Dead Space reboot launching on January 27 2023- just two months after The Callisto Protocol. If gamers are given the choice between a completely new IP attempting to mimic a famous franchise or a new entry in that franchise, the choice is usually quite clear.

Horror games are still in quite a niche in the video game market- and even the biggest games sell less than other genres. For example, Resident Evil 7 was the newest entry in the biggest horror franchise at the time and managed a commendable 3.5 million sales at launch- but that was still lower than developer Capcom’s expected 4 million. Compared to a new game from the soulslike genre, Elden Ring has sold over 18 million copies in under a year. Of course, there are other factors to determine why Elden Ring sold so well, but it does highlight that the horror game slice is more narrow than developers may expect. Whether The Callisto Protocol will meet its revised sales figure of 2 million is still up in the air- but even if it does, it doesn’t seem like this will be seen as the huge success that Striking Distance Studios were hoping it would be. Hopefully, this serves as an example for developers to keep their expectations in check- especially in the horror genre.