For those that had hoped to see upcoming space horror The Callisto Protocol make its way onto Xbox Games Pass at release, this seems unlikely.
Chatting to TrueAchievements, Striking Distance Studios chief technology officer Mark James said the Game Pass model was a “difficult” one in financial terms for independent studios with single-player games – something The Callisto Protocol is.
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“I think those services are built towards some of the open-world style and repetitive multiplayer games. I think games [like that] survive well on that service,” James said when discussing the possibility of seeing a title like The Callisto Protocol joining Game Pass.
“Microsoft has their own single-player games within the service, and I still think youre going to see the platform holder studios provide single-player games in them; Im just saying [that] as a financial model, its a difficult one to make work as an independent studio,” he continued.
This is not to say that The Callisto Protocol will never make its way onto a subscription service like Game Pass, however.
“I think youre going to see single-player games, but it will probably come from the hardware companies…” James concluded. “As an independent, third-party, its really hard to make a linear third-person game work within those services. Im not saying never; its hard financially to make that work.”
Speaking to GeneracionXbox, director Glen Schofield stated his studio had talked about bringing its space horror to Game Pass, and that it had a good relationship with Phil Spencer and Xbox.
However, here Schofield stressed the importance of giving the game “time in the market” before any deals were made.
The Callisto Protocol is set to release on 2nd December across consoles and PC, with the team promising that it will be a much gorier game than Dead Space.