Striking Distance Studios has announced that The Callisto Protocol has gone gold, meaning that the development is over and it is ready for players to pick up. In any case, going gold is an important milestone for games development, and means The Callisto Protocol is a step closer to being released into stores and on digital distribution. For those who are unaware, going gold is one of the final big stages in the development of the game.
The phrase going gold is a term of development referring to when a game has reached the stage of its development when it is ready for release, barring any potential polishing it might need yet. Striking Distance Studios announced on Twitter recently that The Callisto Protocol has gone gold, meaning the main development has concluded and the game is now ready for pressing to disk.
The developers first announced The Callisto Protocol way back in 2020 at The Game Awards, in a two-minute teaser. Made by Striking Distance Games, the third-person survival horror title has plenty of hype to live up to, since it is directed by Glenn Schofield, best known for being a co-creator of the original Dead Space. Well, it turns out that this is still this year Callisto Protocol, with developer Striking Distance announcing that the game has gone gold, coming out in December, just as it was initially planned.
We are thrilled to announce that #thecallistoprotocol has gone gold! On behalf of everyone at @sd_studios, thank you for your support and excitement. We can't wait for you to face the horrors waiting in Black Iron Prison on December 2nd. pic.twitter.com/NfHSWexvyx
— The Callisto Protocol (@CallistoTheGame) October 21, 2022
It started off as comments by Striking Distance studio boss Glen Schofield getting in hot water after discussing and perhaps encouraging, the cut-rate culture that the team was experiencing back then, though more recent reports that The Callisto Protocols might actually get delayed until 2023, to the team’s immediate rebuttal by reinstating the date of Dec. 2, 2022.
The announcement is especially notable given an earlier, now-deleted tweet by Striking Distance Studios CEO Glen Schofield about Striking Distance Studios dev team, where Glen Schofield claimed the dev team was working 12-hour days, six-to-seven days per week. He later corrected himself by saying “Earlier I tweeted how proud I was of the effort and hours the team was putting in. That was wrong. We value passion and creativity, not long hours. I’m sorry to the team for coming across like this.”
For anyone who has missed the science fiction horror subgenre of games, it looks like it is making a huge comeback over the next few months. One of the most-anticipated horror games has all but confirmed there are going to be no delays, with the goal being a release right ahead of the holiday season of 2022.
