Founder Glen Schofield leaves Striking Distance Studios

Glen Schofield has decided to leave Striking Distance Studios, the game studio that he founded.

After shipping the company’s first game, The Callisto Protocol, and weathering 32 layoffs earlier this year, Schofield is moving on to pursue other opportunities. Schofield has a rich history in triple-A games. Steve Papoutsis will take over as the new CEO.

Schofield and Michael Condrey, who worked together at Electronic Arts at Visceral Studios to make the first Dead Space game, started Sledgehammer Games, where they began to work on the Call of Duty series. They were enlisted to help with Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops title in 2010 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in 2011. But their first solo effort under Activision was Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which debuted in 2014. Then Schofield and Condrey headed the team that produced Call of Duty: WWII in 2017.

Amid the disruption caused by Krafton’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, both Schofield and Condrey left Activision’s Sledgehammer studio in 2018. Condrey left to create 31st & Union for Take-Two Interactive’s 2K Games label, while Schofield started Striking Distance Studios in the East Bay of the Bay Area in 2019.

Schofield quickly hired a lot of game veterans, including numerous folks from Slegehammer, and built the company to more than 150 developers with funding from Krafton.

Instead of working on something in the PUBG universe, Schofield opted to create a spiritual successor to Dead Space. Dubbed the Callisto Protocol, the game came out in 2022, but it got bad reviews.

It’s not a surprise that Schofield is leaving. He said he will pursue other opportunities. Meanwhile, Steve Papoutsis, who previously served as chief development officer and general manager for SDS, hsa become CEO of the studio. Papoutsis was previously chief operating officer at Baobab Studios, and vice president, general manager, and executive producer at Electronic Arts. Papoutsis worked closely with Schofield since their Crystal Dynamics and Visceral Games days.

Krafton said, “Glen’s contributions during his time at Krafton have been invaluable. He built an ace team of talents at SDS and set a high standard for the work they did together every day. We’re confident in the team’s continued success because of the significant impact Glen has had, and for that we owe him our deepest gratitude.”

In a statement, Schofield said, “Creating Striking Distance Studios has been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a game close to my heart. While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands. Steve and I go way back to working at Visceral Games. I saw how successful he was in taking the reins after my departure then and how he continued the studio’s success and growth. That’s how I know he’s the one to lead the studio into its next chapter.”

Krafton said it has been carefully planning for the transition to ensure a smooth handover and uninterrupted operations. Striking Distance Studios is committed to supporting its incredibly talented team. It said its staff remains a top priority during this transition.

In his early years, Schofield was a vice president at Crystal Dynamics and he led development on Gex and Legacy of Kain. At EA Redwood Studios, he worked on titles such as The Lord of the Rings as well as 007: From Russia With Love.