The Callisto Protocol PS5 PS4 PlayStation

The Callisto Protocol, developed by Striking Distance Studios, has reportedly failed to meet sales expectations, a state of affairs which has affected the share price of publisher and parent company Krafton as a result.

According to Korean website MK-Odyssey, The Callisto Protocol cost around 200 billion won ($162m / £132m) to develop over the course of three years, a figure which sales have failed to recoup.

During development, Krafton claimed that The Callisto Protocol would be a "AAAA" developed title, implying a level of quality beyond the more boilerplate and bog-standard AAA budget.

Samsung Securities, along with other financial investment and securities companies, have lowered their target stock price in response, noting that The Callisto Protocol's sales were softer than anticipated. In a stock report released earlier in the month, the firm noted that they "expected cumulative sales of 5 million copies, but considering the current sales ranking, cumulative sales of 2 million copies will not be easy until this year”.

Krafton apparently intends to ameliorate some of these losses by supporting the title with cosmetic and story-based DLC, but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough. We ran a poll back at the start of December (with a fairly substantial sample size, mind you), which suggested that might be something of an uphill battle, as even around the time of launch, players were fairly shy about picking up the game.

We enjoyed The Callisto Protocol's weighty combat and brutal animations but thought the experience was let down in part by boring characters and some framerate issues. For our full thoughts on the matter, check out our in-depth review.

Did you pick up the Callisto Protocol? Are you surprised that sales seem soft, or was it that the publisher's expectations were too high? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source m.k-odyssey.com, via videogameschronicle.com]