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Discussion Metroid Dread dev issues, cut content, salary, punishments and more at MercurySteam.

SalvaPot

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There is this interesting article about the management at MercurySteam (Spanish source).

I'll translate some interesting tidbits and update the OP.

-Co-founder Enric Álvarez made a video message to assure people they had job security, then soon after fired most of the QA staff and a good chunk of 3D artists.
-Between April and June of 2020 Nintendo checked on the game and cut about half the bosses and cinematic planned for the game, with another cut made (Started by a MC programmer) to the scope of the game back in 2019 among other things, to avoid crunch..
-No crunch is a MercurySteam policy.
-Employees are not allowed to talk bonuses and are punished if they do so.
-salary seems to be €25, 000 for junior positions and €28,000 seniors
-Employees are punished by forcing them to work in isolated offices or switch groups.
-The pandemic made management and work from home chaotic.
-The company tried to skip out on paying pandemic-related bonus salaries. They did pay it at the end.
-The people interviewed seemed proud of working on the game but don't feel valued by the company.
-MercurySteam, as a company, is characterized as managed by people who play favorites with employees, and who punish those who go against their philosophy, as evidenced by taking people out of the credits of the game.
-The workplace environment between the same-level workers was great.
-The people that worked in the game, even if not credited, are still proud of what they made.
 
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Mercury Steam sounds pretty dysfunctional. Cut content seems par for the course and it’s probably good that Nintendo mandated a tightened scope to avoid dev crunch. But they really need to get a handle on these labor disputes.
 
So Nintendo demanded cuts to avoid crunch (which does fit to other stories about Nintendo and how they handle this stuff) and the management at MS punished their employees, lied to their QA, didn't wanna pay them pandemic benefits and on top of it didn't credit everyone.
Wow, what shitty assholes
 
Good on Nintendo for stepping in to avoid crunch. But man, Mercury Steam needs to get their act together.
 
Nintendo is nowhere near perfect but one of the things they are consistently one of the best at nowadays is avoiding crunching their developers. We see stories all the time about AAA devs being ridiculously overworked but with Nintendo it’s always the opposite.
 
So Nintendo demanded cuts to avoid crunch (which does fit to other stories about Nintendo and how they handle this stuff) and the management at MS punished their employees, lied to their QA, didn't wanna pay them pandemic benefits and on top of it didn't credit everyone.
Wow, what shitty assholes
Sorry for the confusion, the "No crunch" seems to be a MercurySteam policy and the negotiations with Nintendo was to reduce the scope of the game so they could avoid crunch, it was championed by a MS programmer it seem, so they could actually finish the game in time.
 
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It seems that it may have been a mistake for management to agree to make such a good game as Dread, as this new scrutiny on them is bringing to light, and to the mainstream public, their horrible practices. At least we know Nintendo did something good, but the entire management at MS seems pretty bad and may ultimately destroy their studio, though the backslash they are getting may hopefully achieve something for the better.
 
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Nintendo is nowhere near perfect but one of the things they are consistently one of the best at nowadays is avoiding crunching their developers. We see stories all the time about AAA devs being ridiculously overworked but with Nintendo it’s always the opposite.
Yeah there was an article about it.
 
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I know a guy who works there but i dont feel comfortable asking him about this stuff, also, ndas and whatnot. Nintendo should hmm have a talk with mercury steam's management, if only to avoid bad publicity
 
Great developer, bad management, it's not a secret that Enric Alvarez is a really bad person, here in Spain is well known from thinks like this.

On the other hand, the overall Mercury Steam as a developer team has a lot of talented people, most of them flyed to other developers in other countries after some time in MS due to bad management.

Sadly, i have to say that this is very common in Spain in almost EVERY job, even with the pandemic, which imho only got worse after lockdown.
 
That's really messed up. I thought MS had corrected their ways after the whole LoS2 debacle, but it seems management is rotten. I don't think it's wild to see Dread being the last partnership between Nintendo and them. I feel bad for the employees that have been mistreated and uncredited. And also feel sad that Dread scope was even bigger but had to be cut thanks to mismanagement and shitty workplace conditions.

edit: Ah, I see. So MS negotiated with Nintendo to reduce Dread scope as a way to avoid crunch. That's much better then. Doesn't excuse the others allegations though.
 
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From what I've heard of other Spanish developers, Mercury Steam is generally not seen as a good place to work at by the standards of the country.
 
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I swear it’s like Retro. Nintendo should’ve bought this studio. Screw anyone who thinks it’s a problem when situations like this Nintendo should buy them.
 
Wtf. I love mercury steam and what they did with Metroid but Nintendo should drop them. That’s not acceptable

i doubt nintendo keeps working with them if they dont get their stuff right, even if, like i said, just to avoid bad publicity.

Unrelated, content was cut because it was deemed as not good enough, probably.
 
I think Nintendo may reconsider their partnership due to this controversy. Yes, Nintendo buying them would probably fix the problem like what happened with Retro, but it probably isn't that simple to buy them and Nintendo probably doesn't want to (even though that'd save MS from themselves).

At the very least Nintendo should speak with the management about these allegations to see if they can correct the issues, and if not, seek another dev for Metroid and further games. Maybe the threat of that could force management to do something.
 
i doubt nintendo keeps working with them if they dont get their stuff right, even if, like i said, just to avoid bad publicity.

Unrelated, content was cut because it was deemed as not good enough, probably.
This isn’t some new info for Nintendo. Their practices and that dipshit towards the top was already known.
 
There is this interesting article about the management at MercurySteam (Spanish source).

I'll translate some interesting tidbits and update the OP.

-Co-founder Enric Álvarez made a video message to assure people they had job security, then soon after fired most of the QA staff and a good chunk of 3D artists.
-Between April and June of 2020 Nintendo checked on the game and cut about half the bosses and cinematic planned for the game, with another cut made (Started by a MC programmer) to the scope of the game back in 2019 among other things, to avoid crunch..
-No crunch is a MercurySteam policy.
-Employees are not allowed to talk bonuses and are punished if they do so.
-salary seems to be €25, 000 for junior positions and €28,000 seniors
-Employees are punished by forcing them to work in isolated offices or switch groups.
-The pandemic made management and work from home chaotic.
-The company tried to skip out on paying pandemic-related bonus salaries. They did pay it at the end.
I wonder if you might further clarify a few things:

When did the firing of the QA staff and 3D artists happen and what was the context of the video message? Fear of job cuts due to the pandemic?

The working in isolation is punishment for talking salary / incentive structure with fellow employees? People outside the company? Are there other examples of behavior this is used as punishment for? And does it mention what replaced that form of retaliation during work from home times?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and putting in the effort to translate for us.
 
Nintendo is nowhere near perfect but one of the things they are consistently one of the best at nowadays is avoiding crunching their developers. We see stories all the time about AAA devs being ridiculously overworked but with Nintendo it’s always the opposite.
I remember the prime games had a ton of crunch, I'm glad they learned thier lesson since then.
 
So many talents there, i feel like with a new management they could fix this.
 
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This isn’t some new info for Nintendo. Their practices and that dipshit towards the top was already known.

yeah, so i read, its really unfortunate. we're dirt poor in southern europe when compared to the rest of the union so ruthless exploitation is very real here, specially for young people.
 
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I wonder if you might further clarify a few things:

When did the firing of the QA staff and 3D artists happen and what was the context of the video message? Fear of job cuts due to the pandemic?

The working in isolation is punishment for talking salary / incentive structure with fellow employees? People outside the company? Are there other examples of behavior this is used as punishment for? And does it mention what replaced that form of retaliation during work from home times?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and putting in the effort to translate for us.
I'll translate the bits directly, I was on mobile before so I couldn't do it.


At the start of the year 202 Enric Álvarez send a video message to the MercurySteam employees.
At the moment,the studio was working on two different very different proyects and a few workers expressed complaints about the lack of communication from the company in relation to the future: «We didn't know where the project was going, nor we knew what would happen later or if we where going to stay. Enric, trying to calm down the people, made a video where he literally said that the company hada place for everyone, that everyone could stay if they wanted too, because the company was growing and they just got a new project». The Co-founder was able to calm down things a bit, but the calm didn't last long.

Few months after the video, MercurySteam fired all the QA workers except for two people and a big amount of Animators and 3D Model workers. The «proyecto Cazadora» (Project Hunter)», the game that we know as Metroid Dread, still had a few months left of development. And a few crisis to face.


I'll translate your other question in a bit.
 
Good:
-No crunch is a MercurySteam policy.

Iffy:
-Between April and June of 2020 Nintendo checked on the game and cut about half the bosses and cinematic planned for the game, with another cut made (Started by a MC programmer) to the scope of the game back in 2019 among other things, to avoid crunch..
-Employees are not allowed to talk bonuses and are punished if they do so. (not sure if that is illegal or not)
-salary seems to be €25, 000 for junior positions and €28,000 seniors (is that a decent rate for those positions? I have no idea)
-The company tried to skip out on paying pandemic-related bonus salaries. They did pay it at the end.

Bad:
-Co-founder Enric Álvarez made a video message to assure people they had job security, then soon after fired most of the QA staff and a good chunk of 3D artists.
-Employees are punished by forcing them to work in isolated offices or switch groups.
-The pandemic made management and work from home chaotic.
 
I don't speak spanish, so I threw the article into DeepL and... I'm not surprised anymore by this industry.
Here some segments:

"They punish quite a lot the workers who don't do things the way the studio wants, it's quite common and it generates a lot of tension. The constant control is noticeable in the atmosphere and it is clear that they penalize many things that are mistakes or that are not done badly. I think they have a certain pride as a company that they don't tolerate certain opinions", says a former employee, pointing out that these "punishments" range from isolating the worker or changing the group to sudden dismissal "from one day to the next".

Another former worker gives us an example of this type of "punishment": "At Mercury they had two projects, Metroid and another one. Several Metroid developers, from the Slayer project, wanted to move us from one team to another and they did it by offering us a lower salary increase than our colleagues, so the punishment was double, the change and the lower increase". According to this employee, both he and his colleagues were considered "troublemakers" for "trying to negotiate their conditions" and "discussing" their salary bonuses among themselves: "They threatened me because I said that I knew that a colleague had received a bonus and I wanted the same because it was the same position but they told me no and that, in addition, I had got my colleague into trouble for talking about it".

When it comes to detailing the communication problems on the part of the company, several employees point directly to the Human Resources Department as one of the generators of the greatest internal tensions: "Communication with the company is non-existent. The Human Resources department does not want to negotiate or deal with any problems with the workers. In my particular case they referred me to their managers to deal with anything," says a former artist; "they made a supercreative and subjective interpretation of the legislation. They didn't help me with my problem, on the contrary, I ended up losing a month's salary, but I didn't want to insist. They interpret the laws the way they want. When explaining his case, this former worker stresses that other colleagues in a similar situation achieved very different results to his, so he believes that "the general policy of the department is not good or consistent".

However, despite the fact that "the picture that's been posted [in private groups] of the 'Metroid team' is missing at least 50 people", these former workers point to a general fear of speaking publicly about conditions within MercurySteam: "I think they're playing on the fact that a lot of people don't dare to speak publicly. I know two other people who are not properly accredited but I understand that they are afraid to complain because it seems like they will ruin your career. One colleague points directly to the leadership as the cause of this fear: "The main leaders know a lot of people and they can destroy your career if they have a problem with you. They don't mind badmouthing you and screwing up your career and that's why people don't talk," he says.

Please correct this stuff if it is wrong @ everyone who can speak Spanish
 
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I wonder if you might further clarify a few things:

When did the firing of the QA staff and 3D artists happen and what was the context of the video message? Fear of job cuts due to the pandemic?

The working in isolation is punishment for talking salary / incentive structure with fellow employees? People outside the company? Are there other examples of behavior this is used as punishment for? And does it mention what replaced that form of retaliation during work from home times?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and putting in the effort to translate for us.
Your second question is kind of a big one and probably a third of the article, but I can simplify it as:
-They get punished if they don't work exactly the way the studio wants them to.
-They get punished for mistakes.
-They get punished uncalled opinions on the way the game should go.

They also wanted to move people from one project to others and to incentivise it they would give bonuses or salary increases that they NDA'd. If someone figured out someone else was getting paid more for the same job and tried to get the same money, they could get punished.

Punishes can be:
-Working in isolation.
-Changing work stations/work group
-Firing at the moment.

Also, working from home was obligatory, and the company rushed going back to the office. They implemented the plastic walls to separate the working spaces and forced everyone to come back. And they still had a lot of person-person contact and they removed the microwaves because they didn't thrust employees to clean it, so they couldn't eat warm foods.
 
Those salaries are low man

yes but also things are generally cheaper (including labour) in spain then say, the uk or germany. Therefore it is a good investiment to make by any third party interested in setting up or buying a studio there
 
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Yeah this feels like a Retro case where Nintendo should buy them out just to improve working conditions if anything. Because there's clearly a lot of talent looking at Samus Returns and Dread, but the management seems terrible.
 
God damn do I hate companies that take such punitive measures against their own employees. Really shows how talented the employees there are for them to put out such a great game under atrocious management. I don’t know how realistic this is but I really hope that I’d Nintendo are gonna keep working with them then they at least pressure management into getting their shit together, or buying out the remaining 60% stake to enforce better conditions. If they can’t do either then I hope they’d stop working with them, a video game isn’t worth it.
 
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Thanks again, @SalvaPot

So early 2020 for the fake reassurance and then the firings happened just when the pandemic had really kicked off and everyone was feeling peak anxious about their livelihood. That's extra shitty.

And the bonus talk isn't about a single offense, but about upholding a prevailing culture of punishment to keep employees in a constant state of discombobulation and worry about committing some made up crime. That's going to great length to be shitty.
 
I remember them having some big issues in the Lords of Shadow days so it's extremely disappointing to see that it seems little has changed in regards to their management problems.
 
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Translation by Peff.
I'll translate the article itself:

In early 2020, Enric Álvarez sent a video message to MercurySteam's employees.

At the time, the studio was working on two different projects and several workers had expressed their concerns over the non-existant communication from the company in regards to their future. "We didn't know how the project was coming along, we didn't know what would happen afterwards or if we would get to stay." Enric, trying to calm people down, created a video in which he said, literally, that there was a place in the company for everyone, that they'd get to stay if they wanted to because the company was growing and a new project was coming. Although the founder of the company managed to assuage his employees, peace wouldn't last.

A few months after recording the video, MercurySteam fired all QA workers except two and a large amount of animators and 3d modelers. Project Hunter, now known as Metroid Dread, was still planned to be in dev for months. They would also have to face other internal crisis.

"Between April and June 2020, some Nintendo representatives checked progress and cut things because, as far as I know, the scope of the game was far too large. There were around 120 cutscenes left to do, there was a bottleneck in the art department, so they cut a large part of work from the art department, which harmed other departments like AI", says a programmer who left the studio soon after the progress overview. "I lived through two big cuts", confirms a fellow worker, who places the former between May and June 2019. "There were plans for twice the bosses in Metroid at first, as well as twice the cutscenes, and that was impossible, unfeasible". A programmer was in charge of negotiating this cut. He mediated with Nintendo because we couldn't meet the deadlines. There was no time because, on top of that, we don't crunch. This man was the firewall between Nintendo and us. He saved our lives.

These scope cuts are, for some, the best example of an unorganized development process, which reflects the messy way the company operates internally. "The development of Metroid Dread was quite chaotic. Several times my lead and the game's director would give me contradictory instructions and us workers would always pay the price", says a former programmer. "The talent is there, but most of the time it's not in the best position. They are pretty bad at managing people, and things take a ton of effort". A former artist confirms this and the hostile environment created by the poor management: "They don't trust the worker at all, and it's easy to tell. You don't feel appreciated. There are always bad vibes, and it's very tense in general". Speaking to some of the people involved in what's already the best rated Spanish game ever, if feels like its development was barely a satisfying experience.

"They often punish workers who don't do things the way the studio wants. It happens often and it creates a lot of tension. This constant control is reflected in the work environment and it's clear they dish punishment for mistakes or unintentional errors. I think they don't tolerate certain opinions due to some sort of company pride". points a former employee, who claims these "punishments" go from isolating workers or placing them on a different group to firing them suddenly overnight.

Another former employee gives us an example of these kinds of "punishments": "In Mercury they had two projects, Metroid and a different one. They wanted to change some of us from Project Hunter, Metroid, to the other team and they did so by offering us a smaller wage rise than our colleagues. So, the punishment was twofold: changing teams and a smaller rise". According to this employee, his colleagues and him were considered "problematic" because they "tried to negotiate conditions" and "debate" among them their salary bonus. "They threatened me I said I knew a colleague had received a bonus and I wanted the same thing because I had the same job, but they said no and on top of that, that my colleague was in hot water for talking about that.

This colleague, also considered "problematic", confirms his version: "Bonuses have an NDA and they don't want us to discuss them because it leads to complaints [...]. Salaries are very low, around €25.000 a year for juniors and €28.000 seniors. They were very confident that they had the most attractive game in Spain, because it was a Nintendo project.

One of the biggest challenges during the development of Metroid dread was the organization during an unprecedented global pandemic which has changed the way most studios approach their work philosophy. In MercurySteam, since working from home was an imposition rather than an option (employees have returned to the office nowadays), the effects of the pandemic have lead to fights with the leadership related once again with poor communication from the studio.

"The pandemic was not handled well. It was complete and absolute chaos", argues a programmer. "On Friday (March 13th), before closing the office due to the lockdown, we were sent an email at 5PM saying there would be 6 hour shifts and the rest of the hours would be saved to be made up for later. A lot of us complained because many left without reading the mail since they sent it so late, which they often do to prevent us from complaining. Ultimately, they took it back on Sunday (March 15th) and allowed us to stay home.

According to this programmer, the company promised the workers to pay the entire salary. However, they retroactively accepted the ERTE (Record of Temporary Employment Regulation) and attempted to pay nothing of the percentage they were supposed to pay. "We ended up getting our entire salary but many colleagues had to protest to get it because Mercury didn't want to pay the 30% that was their responsibility".

This former employee points out that, in his opinion, the studio rushed back to the workplace and thus safety measures were inadequate. "Since working from home was not an option for them, they put some anti-COVID measures in the workplace but they didn't do a good job. Stations were kept as they were with panes on the sides. Nevertheless, we were very close to the colleague opposite to us with no pane between us. That was not safe. They also took away the microwaves and we couldn't eat hot food because they said they didn't trust us to clean them. Always the same story, they don't trust us".

When it comes to detailing the company's communication problems, several employees point directly to the HR Department as one of the biggest sources of internal tension. "Communication with the company is nonexistant. HR doesn't want to negotiate or deal with any problem the workers have. In my case they told me to deal with their managers", says a former artist. "they came up with this subjective, very creative interpretation of the law. They didn't help me with my problem; if anything, it was the opposite, I lost a month's wage, but I didn't want to insist. The law means whatever they want it to mean". Explaining his case, this former employee highlights that other workers in his situation got much different results, so he believes "the general policy of the department is neither good nor consistent".

"They don't control what they pay. I think salaries depend on how much they like people because there's no rank by position or department or whatever", adds a former programmer when asked about HR management, "they don't have a career plan, you climb the company ranks depending on how much Enric or José Luis [Márquez, Metroid Dread's creative director and Castlevania: Mirror of Fate director] like you, depending on which project you're working on... And when you refuse to accept what they offer, it's taken as a personal attack, they won't negotiate salaries and I know of colleagues who were fired because of that. They called them up to sign and done, no more debates".

But for some workers and former employees, the problem with HR goes beyond poor management to reach, according to their interpretation, into manipulation, bad faith and control. "Elections for the Community of Madrid took place in a workday", explains a former programmer, "according to Spanish law, any worker whose workday overlaps over six hours with voting hours has the right to 4 hours to go vote. They knew that, but they told us that there was too much work to do in the game to take so much time off and no one neede so much time for such a simple process".

As usual in most studios, Mercury works with temporary contracts, agreements between company and worker which allow both parties to work together for a certain amount of time, never exceeding three years, in a specific project. This gives the company advantages such as an easier firing process, allowing them to staff up for peaks in workload and then fire contractors with minimal costs. "They always do contracts. You're supposed to get an open-ended contract after three years by default", says an employee who spent several years at the studio, "they do it in every department and then let people go for any reason. The contract allows it".

The most recent controversy related to MercurySteam and the development of Metroid Dread is related to an article published by Vandal in which several former employees express their frustation at being uncredited in the game. The studio claims that it's company policy to only credit employees who have stayed in the company for at least 25% of development time. with some exceptions for outstanding contributions.

In the article itself, the workers interviewed by Vandal are wary of the figure, and all the employees interviewed by AnaitGames agree. "I was never told of any conditions to be credited. I thought it was a given". I was surprised to read that percentage in Vandal". argues a former programmer. "At no point did they tell me how long I'd have to work or what the minimum time was to be credited. I was surprised to read it in Vandal because it wasn't written anywhere. I had assumed I would automatically be credited since I worked on the game, especially because I saw parts of my work were kept untouched in the final build. It's clear nobody modified that part of my work", points a former employee whose contributions to the game's art direction are evident even from the trailers.

For one of the interviewed artists, behind the decision of whether to credit some employees or not hides a "punishment culture", and other workers agree: "I believe it's a punishment not to credit those of us who contributed and had to leave the studio because our work is there. It's in plain sight. To me that's punishment culture. There is, and up to a point it's justified, a huge sense of pride and arrogance that ends up backfiring. It's obvious they've just made the best game ever to be created in Spain and now their ego is enormous, but I don't know why they punish those of us who did our small part, rather than sharing the accomplishment. It really sucks to see things I've worked on and it's not acknowleged.

A colleague describes his disappointment after discovering on release day that his months of contributions were not properly credited. "I believe my work has been relevant and it was enough to be credited. I get that I don't own the rights to my work because my contract says so, but I should still be credited because my work is in the game as I created it. Due to IP laws and NDAs I can't use my work as a letter of application to other companies, so the only way to prove is through the game's credits". He points out that the situation is not just damaging in regards to job prospects, it's also emotionally draining: "Being in the credits is exciting to us and it makes us proud. So when the day comes and you eagerly look it up, only to not find it, it's a big blow. It's been a few emotionally trying days for me since the release. Not just emotionally, since it in a way it makes you feel excluded from the project, but professionally as well (...) I just wanted to enjoy revealing that I worked on the game, as others have, that's something that's been denied to me and it makes me sad. It was something I needed".
Moreover, even though in the "team Metroid" picture (published through private groups) over 50 people are missing, these former employees argue that there's a general sense of fear of speaking publicly about the conditions within MercurySteam. "I think they're taking advantage of the fact that people are afraid to speak publicly. I know two other people who weren't properly credited but I understand they're afraid of speaking out because it feels like your career is over". A colleague blames the leadership as the source of this fear: "The main leaders know a lot of people and they can screw your career if they have a problem with you. They don't care about badmouthing you and destroy your career, so people don't talk". he says.

But even beyond company leadership, it's relatively easy to find accounts which praise the huge talent in the middle and lower job positions and the internal fellowship within the teams: "The relationship between colleagues and the day to day for the "foot soldiers" was amazing. I had a great time, I've never laughed more at any other studio. And even though there was a sense of competition, that's normal in creative jobs because we all want to be the best". They also have very kind words for Metroid Dread: "It pains me not to be in the credits because it makes me so proud. This game is already part of the history of game development in our country".
 
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No crunch is good but that management sounds like a nightmare to work under. It can't be a healthy atmosphere.
 
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-Employees are not allowed to talk bonuses and are punished if they do so.
Does Spain have protections against this kind of stuff. Pretty sure this would be illegal in the US.

The rest sounds horrible too. Nintendo has a good track record so I hope they actually care and react to this somehow.

EDIT: Apparently this stuff was known before though? Well, hope this gains traction and bad PR causes Nintendo to react then
 
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Everything sounds like Mercury Steam could be a magical little studio that makes Spain proud and Nintendo fans happy for many years to come, except the bosses don't appreciate what they have, and you just know the people in charge believe Dread's success is due to their strict managment and uncompromising vision - as those types tend to euphemistically view their own abrasive ways - and not the talent they are lucky to have assembled under them and what the company could achieve if its workers and artists were able to breathe more freely.

It's actually perplexing there is no crunch, given how much attention is paid to making life miserable in many other ways.
 
I know that Retro before the acquisition was analogous, but I'm trying to remember just how analogous they were to Mercury Steam in this situation.

Was Retro's problem mostly crunch, or did they have all of these other things attached to them too? Despite listening to that recent interview from a few weeks back, I can't quite remember.
 
Yeah this feels like a Retro case where Nintendo should buy them out just to improve working conditions if anything. Because there's clearly a lot of talent looking at Samus Returns and Dread, but the management seems terrible.
Yeah. I hope Nintendo works with them and discusses buying the majority of the company. Take over management. Get rid of whoever is against betterment and put the right people in high places.
 
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I know that Retro before the acquisition was analogous, but I'm trying to remember just how analogous they were to Mercury Steam in this situation.

Was Retro's problem mostly crunch, or did they have all of these other things attached to them too? Despite listening to that recent interview from a few weeks back, I can't quite remember.

Other than crunch, I only remember heavy handholding and supervision from Nintendo, even Miyamoto. I'm sure the pay also wasn't the greatest but that probably wasn't the biggest thing to talk about back then.
 
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I know that Retro before the acquisition was analogous, but I'm trying to remember just how analogous they were to Mercury Steam in this situation.

Was Retro's problem mostly crunch, or did they have all of these other things attached to them too? Despite listening to that recent interview from a few weeks back, I can't quite remember.
Crunch, toxic management and Spangenberg being constanly absent and using Retros servers to host a a website with pictures of hlaf nakes women.
Here is a series of articles about the Story of Retro Studios from 2004 https://www.nsidr.com/archive/a-retrospective-the-story-of-retro-studios/
 
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I'm really sad to hear what the bosses do to their employees at MS. Damn... I hope they get better.
I'm happy Nintendo avoided the crunch. It's something they have grown better this generation, as in Game Cube era you had Smash Melee done in 13 months and Metroid Prime had craziness to have more than half of its development done in just one year by Retro.
 
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I'm avoiding going to the DLC speculation thread because it has spoilers and I didn't play the game, but the information that the scope was reduced and bosses and levels were cut so the game would be completed in time, makes me wonder if they won't release some substation expansion for this game next year.
An expansion pass like Age of Calamity got would be a good ideia.
 


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