Striking Distance Studios, the developer behind last year’s sci-fi horror The Callisto Protocol, has made the difficult decision to lay off 32 employees in order to realign the studio’s priorities. The studio’s parent company, Krafton, has implemented strategic changes to better position its current and future projects for success. While this has unfortunately impacted the jobs of 32 individuals, Striking Distance Studios is committed to supporting them with outplacement services and meaningful severance packages.

Several employees affected by the layoffs began discussing the situation on social media before the official announcement. Among them are associate level designer Thomas Catalano, VFX artist Matt Christopherson, associate producer Nora Falcon, level design assistant Justin Fields, production coordinator Sebastian Marlow, and senior environment artist Matthew Smith.

The Callisto Protocol, released in December, aimed to capture the spirit of EA’s popular sci-fi horror game Dead Space, with Glen Schofield, co-creator of Dead Space, leading the development team. However, the game received mixed reviews from critics and did not achieve the expected sales figures.

In January, it was reported that Krafton had anticipated selling five million copies of The Callisto Protocol, which had a production cost of £132m over three years. However, by that time, only two million copies had been sold, making it unlikely for the game to reach its sales target.

Development of The Callisto Protocol concluded in June with the release of its final DLC chapter, Final Transmission.