New Game Plus Coming to The Callisto Protocol Early 2023

While many players were disappointed to discover that The Callisto Protocol didn’t have New Game Plus on launch, the game’s official Twitter has just announced that NG+ will be coming to TCP, albeit not until February 7th of 2023. It will be added to the game alongside a new Hardcore Mode — details on what exactly the hardcore mode entails have yet to be revealed. The announcement also included additional information on what the Season Pass will contain, and when that additional content will arrive.

It’s great that NG+ and the new mode will be free, but it’s really a shame how often stuff that should have been base content doesn’t show up until months after the game is released. Development cycles are clearly shorter than they should be, and it’s become normalized to ship essentially unfinished games nowadays.

Speaking of base content being packaged separately, today’s announcement also gave us a timeline for the Season Pass content, with the first set of unlocks being the Outer Way skin collection arriving the same day as NG+ and Hardcore Mode. The Contagion Bundle will include a new game mode with perma-death and fewer weapons and health, plus a collection of Death Animations. The Riot bundle adds another new game mode, a horde mode where you have to survive against waves of enemies. Finally, Summer 2023 will bring “Story Content”, which promises to let players “Dig deeper into the horrifying story” of the game.

For now, it appears the only way to get access to the Season Pass is to buy the Digital Deluxe edition. However, it’s hard to imagine that the developers would risk pissing off legions of people with a decision so decidedly anti-consumer… we hope. There are a few months before the Season Pass content arrives, so they’ve got some time to make the right call.