Glen Schofield, who co-created Dead Space and most recently directed The Callisto Protocol, is leaving Striking Distance Studios.
In a new report published by Bloomberg and independently confirmed by IGN, Schofield is departing the Krafton-owned studio. A Krafton representative told both IGN and Bloomberg that Schofield voluntarily departed the company, stating that he has "decided to pursue new opportunities." Bloomberg's report also notes that Stacey Hirata, Striking Distance's COO, and Johnny Hsu, the CFO, are also departing the company.
"Creating Striking Distance Studios has been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a game close to my heart," Schofield said in a statement regarding his departure. "While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands."
Steve Papoutsis, who previously served as Striking Distance Studios Chief Development Officer and General Manager, will take over as CEO. Papoutsis previously worked together with Schofield first at Crystal Dynamics before reuniting at Visceral Games where the duo worked on the first Dead Space game.
The announcement comes at a challenging time for Striking Distance Studios. Nearly two months ago, the company laid off over 30 employees in what was described as a move to "realign the studio's priorities to better position its current and future projects for success."
Striking Distance was founded over three years ago by Schofield. The studio is a subsidiary of Krafton, the parent company that owns the rights for the widely popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The studio was initially formed to create a narrative-driven game set in the PUBG universe, later revealed as The Callisto Protocol, a third-person survival horror game released last December.
Following the release of the studio's debut game, it was met with mixed reviews and plagued with several problems, from performance issues to reports of studio crunch and issues with crediting people who contributed to the development. Roughly a month after release, it was reported that the game failed to meet Krafton's sales expectations.
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Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
