The Callisto Protocol Might Be a Flop as Sales Fall Hugely Below Projections!

I have to admit that I haven’t actually played The Callisto Protocol so can’t really speak about it from any kind of first-hand knowledge. All I can say for sure is that the people I know who have played it largely all agree that it is, in brief, a pretty huge case of style over substance. Put simply, it looks great, but the gameplay and story itself are fairly mediocre at best.

With that being said though, while I had (and still have) little interest in playing it myself (because horror games scare me!), I did largely presume that in terms of sales, the title was proving to be a relative success. – Following a report via Eurogamer, however, it seems that in this regard I’m very wrong. In fact, The Callisto Protocol might (in relative terms) be turning out to be a flop for its developer!

The Callisto Protocol Sales Are WELL Below Expectations

According to the report, Krafton, the parent company of The Callisto Protocol’s developer Striking Distance Studios, revealed that they were projecting an overall lifetime sales of around 5 million copies. – At the moment, however, it has only sold 2 million!

Why is this a problem? Well, given that The Callisto Protocol was released on December 2nd, the initial hype and sales boom has clearly long ended by this point. Put simply, all they can really expect from full-price sales now is basically a trickle. – Yes, a Steam sale here and a retail discount there will undoubtedly see more copies sold, but not for the full revenue, and even then, 3 million copies? That’s a lot to expect when you’re basically getting drip fed!

The overall situation is, in fact, so poor that Krafton has felt compelled to reveal the figures now (particularly to investors), and by proxy, lower their expected stock value moving into 2023!

Admittedly though, I think The Callisto Protocol was always going to struggle based on two points. Firstly, marketing. A lot of people have still never even heard of this game despite clearly representing a AAA title. – AAA development, but B-movie marketing! It clearly seems that the publisher hoped that a minimal bit of expenditure in this area might be overcome by community hype.

Secondly, a December 2nd release date for a survival horror title? Seems like a really bad (almost stupid) release date for a title of this genre. – Halloween is when you want to release a new survival horror title, not in the lead-up to Christmas!

What do you think though? Are you surprised that The Callisto Protocol has such low sales figures? Have you played it? And if so, what are your thoughts on the title? – Let us know in the comments!