PUBG made it “difficult” to tell the story of The Callisto Protocol

pcgamesn.com:

PUBG, the online, multiplayer, battle royale from publisher Krafton, was initially part of a shared fictional universe with upcoming horror game and Dead Space spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol, but this was dropped when linking the two became “difficult” for developer Striking Distance.

Set aboard an isolated space prison, The Callisto Protocol pits you against a range of horrifying creatures, mutated via a mysterious, body-horror-inspired contagion. The combat is designed to be heavy and difficult, with Striking Distance trying to engender fear through feelings of vulnerability and helplessness. Led by Glenn Schofield, the former EA producer who worked on Dead Space, the developer initially aimed to create a shared universe between The Callisto Protocol and PUBG, the online shooter also helmed by publisher Krafton. Speaking to PCGamesN at Gamescom 2022, however, Striking Distance’s chief technology officer Mark James explains that the connection was dropped because it made it “too difficult” to properly tell The Callisto Protocol’s story.

“We looked at the two universes,” James says, “and there were a good 400 years in between both of them. It started to be so large – the connection would have taken away from the Callisto universe. It became so difficult to tell our story and still make that connection. So we were like, ‘we’ve got one game to kind of establish this universe, and we hope to take it forward as, finger crossed, a franchise’, so we spoke to Krafton and said ‘we don’t want to make this part of the PUBG universe anymore.’ And they basically said if you think that’s the right decision for the game, then you don’t have to do it.”

Exactly how PUBG would have linked to the world of The Callisto Protocol