Now this story may need to be taken with a little bit of salt. There is a new report out of a Korean media outlet that offers up a little insight as to how poorly The Callisto Protocol has performed. The information shared here has only been seen in this one report and, even without any sort of translation issues, may still be inaccurate. The information coming out of Korea was also shared by MP1ST.
That said, it is being reported that The Callisto Protocol has sold only around 2 million copies. Developer Striking Distance Studios and publisher Krafton allegedly forecast that the game would sell 5 million copies.
Furthermore, the report says that The Callisto Protocol had a development budget of 200 billion won (or about $162 million USD) that the team is struggling to recuperate. The failure to meet the incredibly high sales forecast combined with the high development costs have supposedly had a rather significant impact on Krafton's financials.
Daishin Securities, Samsung Securities, Shinhan Securities, KIWOOM Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, and Hyundai Motor Securities have lowered their target stock prices of Krafton from last month to early this month, according to securities industry on Friday.
As the main reason, securities companies have stated the failure of the Callisto Protocol, which was launched on December 2 last year.
Samsung Securities [016360] predicted in a stock report earlier this month, "The company expected cumulative sales of 5 million copies, but considering the current sales ranking, cumulative sales of 2 million copies will not be easy until this year."
Korea Investment & Securities also lowered its cumulative sales estimate of the Callisto Protocol from 4 million to 2.1 million on the previous day, and lowered its operating profit estimate for this year from 813 billion won to 629.3 billion won.​
As the main reason, securities companies have stated the failure of the Callisto Protocol, which was launched on December 2 last year.
Samsung Securities [016360] predicted in a stock report earlier this month, "The company expected cumulative sales of 5 million copies, but considering the current sales ranking, cumulative sales of 2 million copies will not be easy until this year."
Korea Investment & Securities also lowered its cumulative sales estimate of the Callisto Protocol from 4 million to 2.1 million on the previous day, and lowered its operating profit estimate for this year from 813 billion won to 629.3 billion won.​
The sales forecast was also extremely ambitious for The Callisto Protocol, a game released a mere month prior on December 2, 2022. The Callisto Protocol is a new IP from a new studio published by a relatively small publisher. Several established game franchises like Resident Evil take quite a bit of time to hit the five million sold mark. It took Resident Evil 8 almost a full year after its release to hit the 6 million units sold milestone. Even Final Fantasy VII Remake took five months to sell 5 million units.
