Krafton CEO Changhan 'CH' Kim feels The Callisto Protocol failed to meet expectations because he did not have a “game advantage”.
The horror title was developed by Krafton subsidiary Striking Distance Studios and touted as a spiritual successor to Dead space.
Former Dead space The executive producer oversaw the production as co-director, but the title reportedly failed to meet internal sales targets (Thanks Eurogamer) when it launched in 2022. About 32 employees were subsequently firedAND Schofield eventually left to “seize new opportunities”.
During a recent interview with Game Developer, Kim suggested that Krafton and Striking Distance had difficulties during production (which would have been hit by the crisis) because it was the first time the South Korean company developed a single-player AAA project.
“This is the first time we’ve done a project with these keywords, so we had a hard time predicting whether the production was going as it should, but I learned two things,” says Kim.
“This is a single-player narrative game. [that’s] visually stunning and a high quality game to look at. Despite that, the core of the game is the gameplay. Gameplay comes first, that's what I learned with The Callisto Protocol. It could be the highest quality game in the world, but if you don't have a gameplay advantage, if you can't differentiate your gameplay from your competitors, it doesn't work. I was able to reaffirm that.”
Kim reiterates that the gameplay needs to innovate in some way. That could mean implementing a mechanic that is deeply immersive or creatively fresh, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s going into uncharted territory.
“This allows for new experiences within the game, and even if [The Callisto Protocol] it's a narrative game, a single-player game, you have to be able to offer a good gaming experience. You can't do that without those elements,” he continues. “Secondly, because [making] “Video games are a blockbuster industry, production costs can increase dramatically and AAA titles are very expensive to make.”
Krafton boss believes early iteration is key to innovation (and keeping budgets in check)
Stressing this point, Kim refers to Sony's production budgets for Forbidden Horizon West ($212 million) and The Last of Us – Part II ($220 million), both revealed last year via a poorly drafted legal document that surfaced during the FTC's battle with Microsoft (Thanks Axios), demonstrating how costs can skyrocket.
With the budget in mind, Kim thinks Krafton should have told Striking Distance to iterate more during the early stages of production, when overheads were lower and there was more room for experimentation. “We should have iterated more to see if the new gameplay was working well, and then moved into full production to get it right,” he adds.
Kim says Krafton is now trying to create new IPs with a focus on creativity, even if that means sacrificing “linear” year-over-year growth. “For us, PUBG is our foundation and we’re growing based on PUBG’s growth, but moving forward we need to create new IPs,” he adds. “It could take years to [create new IPs]but we will not give up. We will continuously try new creative ideas [ideas].”
Kim highlights the success of titles such as The Hell Divers 2 AND Pal World as proof that the “creativity first” mantra gets results, but recognizes that the market is unpredictable.
“We will continuously try these new creative ideas. Not everything will be successful, but one day we might come across another PUBG. […] I would say it’s a bottom-up approach, and that’s not what a lot of big companies are trying to do right now.”
It's an approach that recently led Krafton to purchase Tango Gameworks and Hi-Fi Rush from Microsoft, despite Kim admitting that a potential sequel might not make much money. You can hear Kim talk more about this acquisition right here.