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Dead Space Remake Stomps The Callisto Protocol Launch with Almost Double the Players on Steam

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

With an entire decade passing since the last installment in the Dead Space series, fans were thrilled to hear that Striking Distance Studios (founded by Dead Space‘s co-founder, Glen Schofield) would be releasing the spirtual successor in 2022.

But after years of marketing hype and a budget reportedly around $160 million, The Callisto Protocol‘s highly anticipated launch in December underperformed with lower-than-expected scores from critics, mixed reviews from gamers, and a peak of only 17k players on Steam.

Now, less than two months after The Callisto Protocol‘s launch, EA and their Motive Studio (responsible for previous Star Wars games using the Frostbite engine) have revived Dead Space with a remake of the 2008 horror classic. A remake that’s been much more well received with high review scores, positive feedback from fans, and a peak of 30k players on Steam.

With such big necromorph-stomping boots to fill, the developers at Motive seem to have mastered the Frostbite engine and nailed the remake formula by perfectly blending old with new. Just like Capcom did back in 2019 with their survival horror remake of Resident Evil 2, both players and critics agree that the new Dead Space is faithful restoration and new fan-favorite.

So, what happened with The Callisto Protocol?

Everything seemed good after the first cinematic trailer revealed a new survival horror game from the same industry vets who created Dead Space… but, that hype quickly began to fade out after laggy first-looks at gameplay and marketing that focused way too much on highly detailed actor scans, death animations, and plans for even more post-launch paid DLC animations.

Dead-Space-Remake-Launch-Player-Count-graph.jpg
The-Callisto-Protocol-Launch-Player-Count-graph.jpg
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Decent remake of a beloved game succeeds.

Shit game that runs poorly on almost every platform fails.

Everything is in order here.
 
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To be fair, wasn't the target and marketing for the game mostly aimed toward PS players and not PC players?

Kind of like the COD thing with consoles vs. PC?
 
Doesn't that just speak to the notion that gamers prefer old remakes instead of new experiences? I don't see why one game is competing against another when one of them is a spiritual successor to the other.
 

ZehDon

Member
To be fair, wasn't the target and marketing for the game mostly aimed toward PS players and not PC players?

Kind of like the COD thing with consoles vs. PC?
The game was heavily marketed as a PlayStation title, and PlayStation 5 was the only platform to receive an optimisation pass before launch. The PC version was a mess on launch day, and I know more than a few held off. The review scores didn't help either.
 

Dynomite

Member
Callisto Protocol is a bad game that is worst then Dead Space is just about every regard. The lack of story, unremarkable characters and bafflingly misguided combat system solidify that game as a flop.
 
The game was heavily marketed as a PlayStation title, and PlayStation 5 was the only platform to receive an optimisation pass before launch. The PC version was a mess on launch day, and I know more than a few held off. The review scores didn't help either.

Yeah so like i said, i think people are taking the Steam number too hard to the face, it was mainly a PS game targeted to PS users.
 

Puscifer

Member
Decent remake of a beloved game succeeds.

Shit game that runs poorly on almost every platform fails.

Everything is in order here.
There's a guy on here who honestly thinks it only got a bad reception because it's not woke enough lmao
 
Is anyone really surprised by this? It’s like expecting the Evil Within when it first came out to outsell the new RE4 Remake. New unproven IP vs an established beloved, classic franchise. Not saying a new IP can’t overtake a remake of a classic, but the new IP usually has a challenge ahead of it even if it’s considered good. There’s a reason there are so many remakes coming out. Unfortunately, new IP’s are generally seen as a risk.
 

Astral Dog

Member
of course Callisto is a brand new IP (with lower than expected review scores) Dead Space is a Remake of a beloved classic with 90 metacritic, even if 10 years have passed the Dead Space brand is still more recognizable
 
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