Approximately 150 Sony developers assisted in The Callisto Protocol’s production

The game’s end credits reveal that approximately 150 employees from Sony’s PlayStation Visual Arts department worked on Striking Distance Studio’s The Callisto Protocol.

The details:

• The highly-anticipated survival horror title ‘The Callisto Protocol’ was released on December 2 across all major console and PC channels. Prior to release, leaked screenshots of the game’s closing credits showed that two PlayStation Visual Arts teams—totaling around 150 members—contributed to the final product.
• It was shown that Sony had assisted Striking Distance by providing the motion capture studio used in the game’s development, as well as contributing directly to its cinematics. Former Head of Sony PlayStation Visual Arts, Michael Mumbauer, confirmed in a tweet that “It wasn’t just the use of the mocap studio. They [Sony] contributed quite a lot to cinematics and more.”
• Although Sony has provided similar types of assistance in the past to third-party studios, with 70+ Guerrilla employees working on Death Stranding, this is by far the largest group to have been tasked with aiding a game’s production.
• Since The Callisto Protocol has been advertised on many occasions with PlayStation branding, despite not being exclusive to the console, it might not come as a surprise that Sony had some deeper involvement.

How did the launch go?

• The Callisto Protocol finally arrived on Friday, December 2 to mixed reviews. Many players praised the game’s atmospheric design and gameplay, which has been described as reminiscent of Dead Space. Other players didn’t have such a positive first experience, with performance issues plaguing the game on PC and Xbox — to the point where its Steam reviews landed at ‘Mostly Negative’ on launch day.
• This rating has since recovered to ‘Mixed’ following a patch from Striking Distance a few days after launch addressing stuttering and crashing. The game’s official Twitter account also confirmed that more fixes are on the way, including one to address a ray-tracing issue on the Xbox Series X.
• The title is Striking Distance Studios’ first release since being founded under the publisher KRAFTON, which is mostly known for its battle royale title PUBG.