Krafton stock took a notable dip on the Korea Exchange on Friday, coinciding with The Callisto Protocol’s release and reviews for the game being published.
The third-person survival horror game is the latest title from the South Korean company behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and TERA, and the debut game from its California-based development studio Striking Distance.
The brainchild of Dead Space creator and Striking Distance CEO Glen Schofield, it challenges players to escape a maximum security prison on Jupiter’s moon Callisto in the year 2320, after a mysterious outbreak begins transforming its inmates into monstrous creatures.
It was released on Friday and reviews went live an hour and a half before the close of the Korea Exchange. Krafton closed down 8.41%, at its lowest price since November 11.
The game currently has scores of 75 (Xbox Series X/S and PC) and 76 (PS5) on review aggregation website Metacritic.
While respectable, Serkan Toto, the CEO of Tokyo-based games industry consultancy Kantan Games, suggested the scores appeared to have been lower than some investors had hoped for.
“TCP’s metacritic score is in the mid 70s, apparently too low for Krafton investors who were hoping the IP could become a new pillar for the PUBG company,” he wrote.
Across the media, Callisto Protocol has received a wide range of scores, including a 9/10 from PCGamesN, a 7/10 from IGN and a 5/10 from Gamespot.
VGC’s The Callisto Protocol review called the game “a solid, but safe Dead Space successor” which is lacking in originality but delivers strong strategic combat.
“The Callisto Protocol delivers the violence, intensity and horror that lives up to its Dead Space predecessor, but with deeper strategic combat. However, a clichéd story and lack of original ideas means that it has one tentacle stuck in the past,” wrote critic Chrstopher Dring.
