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

Is this a scenario where Nintendo could buy them and replace management with more experienced staff and the studio can flourish?
Nintendo can only buy them if they’re willing to sell + some company bought 40% last year so Idk how that company will feel. I don’t think anything will happen tbh

Nintendo can probably put stipulations in the contract, but I don’t think one studio wants another company telling them how they should be managing their studio. It’s not in Nintendo’s place to do that.
 
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I would hate to see Metroid neglected again for another 20 years,
so I hope Nintendo can resolve this issue and move forward into the future with the MercurySteam.
 
I’m surprised lots of content was cut, even though they repeat bosses, there’s like the same amount of unique bosses as every other 2D Metroid and they’re much more detailed.

A shame to hear about the practices there
 
I’m surprised lots of content was cut, even though they repeat bosses, there’s like the same amount of unique bosses as every other 2D Metroid and they’re much more detailed.

A shame to hear about the practices there
Seems it was because the leads and directors would contradict each other, there was lack of communication, among other things, which lead to delays and chaos. It's impressive they could produce something this good under those conditions.
 
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I think probably this company that bought 40% of MS can make some changes there. I mean it’s their investment and you’d think they don’t want all this negativity.
 
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MS seems like most promising companies I knew. Awesome people hindered by their management. I hope Nintendo keeps working with them as long as they improve their management and listen to their employees.
 
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I imagine/ expect lots of this problems to be hammered out if they continue working for Nintendo in future metroids.
The cut content I assume was a dual “avoid crunch” but also, “lets not overplay our hand in case the games does not live to expectations”.
But now that we know game was a success. I hope that whenever the next one delivers, the scope will be bigger
 
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Fuck, that's awful to hear. I'm loving my time with Metroid Dread but I'd rather have gotten the game with the workers actually treated well. I hope maybe Nintendo can take them under their wing to clean up management or management fixes themselves but I don't think the latter usually happens
 
I feel like these kind of stories from MercurySteam have surfaced before because I do remember that guy’s name popped up on the past trying to do damage control.

Seems like that case where Gearbox lied to Sega about how their game was going and having a mess behind the door.
 
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It sounds like MercurySteam is an absolute mess internally. It's a miracle Dread turned out as good as it did under the circumstances. I hope Nintendo doesn't work with them again until they clean up their act.
 
It sounds like MercurySteam is an absolute mess internally. It's a miracle Dread turned out as good as it did under the circumstances. I hope Nintendo doesn't work with them again until they clean up their act.
I hope Nintendo works with them again, AND FORCE THEM to get their shit together.
If they are smart, after the success of dread, they will want to still work with Nintendo.
 
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As usual, it's not the workers' fault for the mess. It's bad management exploting their labor and not treating them fairly. Nintendo forcing them or not, I hope the situation improves for their sake.
 
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Translation by Peff. part 2.
Finished translating the rest, this is what was missing for people who read it before the edit:​

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".



Really a sad, annoying situation all around. These peeps deserve management worthy of their enormous talent.
 
Holy shit. It’s dejavú. It’s Retro before Nintendo took over a few months before Prime released.
Maybe it's time Nintendo stepped in and bought them out? They could always use another western studio, as well as instituting better policies like what they did with Retro.
 
I'm glad they have a policy against crunch (and Nintendo came in to lighten the burden) but it's really shitty that office politics and egos appear to have caused a kind of hierarchy of compliance and punishment, not allowing for fresh ideas and perspectives. It's one thing to not want a hundred different ideas muddying up a clear vision, but it's another to be outright antagonistic and punishing to suggestions. The money stuff is sketchy too, but at least they ended up paying people in the end, after a lot of gnashing of teeth by management, I'm sure.

I remember hearing about how bad working conditions were during their Castlevania days. A lot of blame was placed on producer Dave Cox, but it seems there was more to it than that.
 
Maybe it's time Nintendo stepped in and bought them out? They could always use another western studio, as well as instituting better policies like what they did with Retro.
Well, Mercury Steam got 40 percent bought out by another company last year.

However if many of them left to work for Nintendo and not put up with that BS…

Come on Nintendo. Give us Nintendo of Spain to rep all us Spanish speakers of the world :D
 
Well, Mercury Steam got 40 percent bought out by another company last year.

However if many of them left to work for Nintendo and not put up with that BS…

Come on Nintendo. Give us Nintendo of Spain to rep all us Spanish speakers of the world :D
Which company bought them out? Perhaps they'd be willing to sell their shares to Nintendo, etc.
 
Which company bought them out? Perhaps they'd be willing to sell their shares to Nintendo, etc.

Nordisk Film. A danish entertainment company with lots of ventures. So doubtful unfortunately.

I love what the team did with Returns and Dread and would just love for some of them to go work for Nintendo.
 
And here I was hoping we were going to see the start of something good. This damn industry is dead-set on always getting in the way of a good thing sometimes.
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
Holy shit. It’s dejavú. It’s Retro before Nintendo took over a few months before Prime released.
Wtf. I love mercury steam and what they did with Metroid but Nintendo should drop them. That’s not acceptable
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.
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.
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.
Is this a scenario where Nintendo could buy them and replace management with more experienced staff and the studio can flourish?
Nintendo can only buy them if they’re willing to sell + some company bought 40% last year so Idk how that company will feel. I don’t think anything will happen tbh

Nintendo can probably put stipulations in the contract, but I don’t think one studio wants another company telling them how they should be managing their studio. It’s not in Nintendo’s place to do that.
At this point, chastising/replacing management seems like it would be a real chore with too many negative after-effects. Enric Alvarez sounds like a piece of work, as does Jose Luis Marquez, based on what is written here, and who knows how much they'd ask to be bought out so Nintendo can clean house of the shit management, based on this report.

At this point, the cheaper and overall better alternative is to build a new studio in the Alcobendas or San Sebastián de los Reyes area from scratch (or elsewhere in Madrid, based on typical employee commute) and poach the hell out of the staff, unless that's somehow illegal, given that I know nothing of Spanish law in this regard. Someone want to weigh in there?

Nintendo, for some of its faults, is at least deeply reverent of talent, even in places with poor management (as the early days of Retro make clear). So long as they can grab hold of the talent itself in some capacity (which seems likely, given the poor situation with employee contracts there) to separate wheat from chaff, they'll be golden.
 
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The whole situation is a mess, and does call to mind the previous situation with Retro, but yet worse.

It's that similarity that makes Nintendo acquiring the studio sound like a good solution -- they turned Retro around, after all. But, yet, the situation doesn't exactly line up, and this seems a plausible option instead:
At this point, the cheaper and overall better alternative is to build a new studio in the Alcobendas or San Sebastián de los Reyes area from scratch (or elsewhere in Madrid, based on typical employee commute) and poach the hell out of the staff, unless that's somehow illegal, given that I know nothing of Spanish law in this regard. Someone want to weigh in there?

Nintendo, for some of its faults, is at least deeply reverent of talent, even in places with poor management (as the early days of Retro make clear). So long as they can grab hold of the talent itself in some capacity (which seems likely, given the poor situation with employee contracts there) to separate wheat from chaff, they'll be golden.
I'm not certain as to what methods would be required for this, but the common agreement regarding Mercury Steam not being an ideal place to work certainly makes it seem like employees might go for something like this.

They could try to form a new studio on their own, of course, but that comes with its own set of challenges and uncertainties, and so working for Nintendo might be seen as preferable.

Oof. More cinematics? I'd wager we dodged a bullet there, friends.
Around 120 more.
I haven't seen how many are in the game as it stands, but that's a lot.
 
Quoted by: SiG
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It sounds like MercurySteam is an absolute mess internally. It's a miracle Dread turned out as good as it did under the circumstances. I hope Nintendo doesn't work with them again until they clean up their act.
...or, you know, maybe Nintendo should just buy them and pull a Retro on their management (and make the company as a whole adhere to better working conditions/salary).
-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..
I can't help but think if these cuts were to the benefit of the game. The EMMI sequences would've overstayed their welcome and also made the length of the game just right...
Around 120 more.
I haven't seen how many are in the game as it stands, but that's a lot.
...Yep, it's definitely to the game's benefit. I'm not sure who's thought it was a good idea to have that many cutscenes...in a Metroid game no less.
The whole situation is a mess, and does call to mind the previous situation with Retro, but yet worse.

It's that similarity that makes Nintendo acquiring the studio sound like a good solution -- they turned Retro around, after all. But, yet, the situation doesn't exactly line up, and this seems a plausible option instead:

I'm not certain as to what methods would be required for this, but the common agreement regarding Mercury Steam not being an ideal place to work certainly makes it seem like employees might go for something like this.

They could try to form a new studio on their own, of course, but that comes with its own set of challenges and uncertainties, and so working for Nintendo might be seen as preferable.
Another option would be for Nintendo to found a new Spanish studio, or maybe open positions and expand NERD to do game development as well.
Nordisk Film. A danish entertainment company with lots of ventures. So doubtful unfortunately.
Wouldn't it just require approval or negotiations from them if the company got bought off?

It's a shame how this type of "punishing" culture is prevalent in their development. I hope their management gets an internal restructuring soon with better work conditions for their developers.
 
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I would hate to see Metroid neglected again for another 20 years,
so I hope Nintendo can resolve this issue and move forward into the future with the MercurySteam.
Prime remake ans Prime 4 should be good for a long time tbh. MercurySteam doesn't seem like a good studio to continue working with.
 
People saying “pull a Retro” are really ignoring how the situations are not the same at all. I don’t think it is possible to do what they did with Retro. MercurySteam is a big company with other businesses owning a stake in the company.
 
...or, you know, maybe Nintendo should just buy them and pull a Retro on their management (and make the company as a whole adhere to better working conditions/salary).

Or MercurySteam can take care of their own problems. It shouldn't be on Nintendo to fix the problems of another company.

Beyond that, why would Nintendo buy MercurySteam after only two games, in the Metroid series of all things? Does Nintendo also want to deal with buying the 40% share of MercurySteam owned by another company? Does MercurySteam actually want to be bought by Nintendo? Are you suggesting that after hearing the news of MercurySteam's mismanagement, that Nintendo will WANT to buy them in order to fix the problems brought on by MercurySteam's internal culture?

Perhaps instead of Furukawa bursting through their front doors with his wizard hat and waving a magic wand, the better solution would be for MercurySteam to take the criticism from its current and former employees to heart, and start making changes by themselves.
 
Seems like an awesome studio ruined by horrible management. In other words: the standard for this industry.

I don't think there's anything Nintendo coukd do to change the situation, but I do expect they droo Mercury Steam now that the game is released. So this can be seen as a message to other companies in the future.
 
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Beyond that, why would Nintendo buy MercurySteam after only two games, in the Metroid series of all things? Does Nintendo also want to deal with buying the 40% share of MercurySteam owned by another company? Does MercurySteam actually want to be bought by Nintendo? Are you suggesting that after hearing the news of MercurySteam's mismanagement, that Nintendo will WANT to buy them in order to fix the problems brought on by MercurySteam's internal culture?
People saying “pull a Retro” are really ignoring how the situations are not the same at all. I don’t think it is possible to do what they did with Retro. MercurySteam is a big company with other businesses owning a stake in the company.
I guess you people do raise a point: Why would anybody want to buy a mismanaged development studio.

It does make me wonder if that's the sole reason we do not see MercurySteam as part of the copyright of the title screen in Metroid Dread: Nintendo bought all ownership of it Astral Chain-style.
 
I guess you people do raise a point: Why would anybody want to buy a mismanaged development studio.

It does make me wonder if that's the sole reason we do not see MercurySteam as part of the copyright of the title screen in Metroid Dread: Nintendo bought all ownership of it Astral Chain-style.

It's more likely that MercurySteam had no ownership of the game in the first place. They didn't have any over Samus Returns either. Not every game Nintendo does with an external developer is a given a co-ownership deal; you'll notice games like Punch-Out on Wii and the later Luigi's Mansion games were also solely copyrighted to Nintendo, and that was well before Next-Level was bought.
 
It's more likely that MercurySteam had no ownership of the game in the first place. They didn't have any over Samus Returns either. Not every game Nintendo does with an external developer is a given a co-ownership deal; you'll notice games like Punch-Out on Wii and the later Luigi's Mansion games were also solely copyrighted to Nintendo, and that was well before Next-Level was bought.
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I'm not sure if this means that Dread will be tied to Mercury Steam being the sole developers who could work on it (and rereleases), similar to how Kingdom Hearts couldn't be made by any other developer except S-E, despite it being owned by Disney (or a better analogy, how Nintendo can't seem to rerelease/remaster Eternal Darkness without Silicon Knights).

It's also the reason why Sin & Punishment 2 needed to have Treasure involved. But then again, one could make the case of Donkey Kong Country Returns, a sequel which was done by Retro, despite the series being initially developed by Rare.
 
It's more likely that MercurySteam had no ownership of the game in the first place. They didn't have any over Samus Returns either. Not every game Nintendo does with an external developer is a given a co-ownership deal; you'll notice games like Punch-Out on Wii and the later Luigi's Mansion games were also solely copyrighted to Nintendo, and that was well before Next-Level was bought.
Yeah, it's clearly a work for hire deal, it's a standard industry practice, especially with big franchises. Like, I'm pretty sure koei tecmo has no ownership of Fire Emblem Three Houses, or Other M for that matter.
 
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I'm not sure if this means that Dread will be tied to Mercury Steam being the sole developers who could work on it (and rereleases), similar to how Kingdom Hearts couldn't be made by any other developer except S-E, despite it being owned by Disney (or a better analogy, how Nintendo can't seem to rerelease/remaster Eternal Darkness without Silicon Knights).
While Nintendo and MercurySteam are the authors, the copyright solely belongs to Nintendo.

Silicon Knights isn't what's stopping Nintendo from remastering Eternal Darkness, a lack of interest is. Nintendo is the sole owner of that game as far as I remember. I don't believe they needed to get Silicon Knight's permission to put an Eternal Darkness spirit in Smash Bros, for example.

If you want to see a more complex copyright situation, just look at F-Zero GX!
 
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Or MercurySteam can take care of their own problems. It shouldn't be on Nintendo to fix the problems of another company.

Beyond that, why would Nintendo buy MercurySteam after only two games, in the Metroid series of all things? Does Nintendo also want to deal with buying the 40% share of MercurySteam owned by another company? Does MercurySteam actually want to be bought by Nintendo? Are you suggesting that after hearing the news of MercurySteam's mismanagement, that Nintendo will WANT to buy them in order to fix the problems brought on by MercurySteam's internal culture?

Perhaps instead of Furukawa bursting through their front doors with his wizard hat and waving a magic wand, the better solution would be for MercurySteam to take the criticism from its current and former employees to heart, and start making changes by themselves.
This isn't the first accusations of poor management from employees there, though, that's part of the problem. One of the named managers who are the problem is a studio founder. It gives the impression that the current management style is, in fact, the preferred management style, especially if we're hearing complaints about it that mimic the ones we heard about them back in... what, 2014?

The bad management has to go, but won't unless forced. And employees are likely not equipped to walk out and found another workplace. It's not terribly unreasonable, in those circumstances, to want someone better equipped to do something about the situation to do it and salvage the quality talent that is evidently in place, to do right by the people who actually made the game.

But you're not wrong to suggest that a buyout may be a difficult proposition, so an alternate tactic is likely what's required. I proposed one, in fact, that washes Nintendo's hands of the management problem entirely.

Then again, this bad press could make the current minority stakeholder Nordisk want to unload their stake for less than they paid for it to disassociate with the bad press, which would also give Nintendo a LOT of negotiating power for the remainder.

In the end, the workers are the concern here. They're good at what they do and should be allowed to continue doing so in far better conditions than they have now.
 
I would hate to see Metroid neglected again for another 20 years,
so I hope Nintendo can resolve this issue and move forward into the future with the MercurySteam.
I think this shows that perhaps Nintendo’s external producers are the ones helping craft the magic and MSteam are the ones blunt forcing it into existence. Nintendo would be wise to avoid working with them again. Its very Naughty Dog.
 
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I don't think Nintendo will want to buy a studio if it's a mess internally, especially when they're partially owned.

It's not unlikely that Nintendo will keep working with MercurySteam for the forseeable future (at least one more Metroid game) before anything significant either results in a breakup between the two companies or the management changes enough to become a more healthy workplace.

Another scenario would be the creation of a brand new studio with former staff from MercurySteam and founded by Nintendo so that they can poach the talent they need without having to deal with the toxic management stifling the obvious talent in the studio.

But something like this would push any kind of games, Metroid or otherwise, more than a few years back as building a new studio from scratch is a pretty big endeavour (look at how long The Initiative from Microsoft is taking between hiring developers and working on Perfect Dark)

Or Nintendo will decide to leave MercurySteam and its staff completely behind and look for yet another studio to work on 2D Metroid whether it's internally (NextLevelGames, Retro or EPD ?) or with an outside studio which again would put 2D Metroid in the ice for more than a few years.
 
It's a long-term hope, but non-shithead leaders at Mercury Steam, like the person who negotiated the cuts, are now known to and trusted by Nintendo. If enough of that talent went and formed their own studio, they'd surely remain on Sakamoto & Co's radar and could get a pitch meeting anytime.
 
It's a shame Mercury Steam is so internally dysfunctional because they evidently have an enormous amount of talent and could become a role model for other developers in countries that are not necessarily game development power houses (I know there's a couple of really good Spanish studios, but still, Metroid came out and it became the best selling game made in Spain ever - also people please buy Blasphemous). Hope they can get their act together.
 
I don't think Nintendo will want to buy a studio if it's a mess internally, especially when they're partially owned.

It's not unlikely that Nintendo will keep working with MercurySteam for the forseeable future (at least one more Metroid game) before anything significant either results in a breakup between the two companies or the management changes enough to become a more healthy workplace.

Another scenario would be the creation of a brand new studio with former staff from MercurySteam and founded by Nintendo so that they can poach the talent they need without having to deal with the toxic management stifling the obvious talent in the studio.

But something like this would push any kind of games, Metroid or otherwise, more than a few years back as building a new studio from scratch is a pretty big endeavour (look at how long The Initiative from Microsoft is taking between hiring developers and working on Perfect Dark)

Or Nintendo will decide to leave MercurySteam and its staff completely behind and look for yet another studio to work on 2D Metroid whether it's internally (NextLevelGames, Retro or EPD ?) or with an outside studio which again would put 2D Metroid in the ice for more than a few years.
It’s not exactly starting from scratch though, when you think about it. You don’t have to find talent, it’s there and ready to go.

And oddly enough, Nintendo has direct experience with that exact scenario, giving a home to anyone wanting to flee Hudson Soft before Konami swung the axe, which they did by clearing out the remnants of a failed dev team from the Yamauchi years and hiring a huge chunk of the Mario Party team that left Hudson as far back as 2007.
 
It’s not exactly starting from scratch though, when you think about it. You don’t have to find talent, it’s there and ready to go.

And oddly enough, Nintendo has direct experience with that exact scenario, giving a home to anyone wanting to flee Hudson Soft before Konami swung the axe, which they did by clearing out the remnants of a failed dev team from the Yamauchi years and hiring a huge chunk of the Mario Party team that left Hudson as far back as 2007.
True but I'd assume they'd still have to hire a lot of developers because some people for one reason or another wouldn't or couldn't leave their current occupation at MercurySteam. Also by creating a new studio, you lose all the technology developed at MercurySteam from Samus Returns and Dread which means rebuilding a pipeline from scratch or using an engine like UE4 that'd require a lot of customization to get performance right.

On the other hand I could imagine a Nintendo owned studio in Spain attracting a lot of people (especially if Nintendo applies the same quality of work environment they apply to other regions of the world).

And this is without mentioning finding a good spot building wise and get into constructions. I also have no idea how the Spanish government would react to a Japanese corporation like Nintendo funding a big company capable of disrupting the current market for videogame development.
 
Wonder if this cut content can be included in future dlc. Im guessing the chance is low but one can hope.
I’m guessing most of it was cut for a reason. I imagine Metroidvanias are particularly hard to develop DLC for that. Because of how their levels are laid out. Just plopping a new section in can end up feeling disconnected from the rest of the world and kill that sort of shortcut and sequence break nature that make them fun. The only big one I remember getting significant area dlc was Ori with the Definitive Edition. HK didn’t add any parts to the maps, just new challenges and boss fights in the existing world, and HK has a lot of world to slip those sort of things into it.
 
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What a fucking mess. MS needs to get its shit together, because I can't see Nintendo just magically coming in and buying the company, especially as MS is already partially owned by Nordisk.

It does make me wonder if that's the sole reason we do not see MercurySteam as part of the copyright of the title screen in Metroid Dread: Nintendo bought all ownership of it Astral Chain-style.

Nintendo usually only gives co-ownership of a game if said company had a hand in conceptualizing the IP. It's why Astral Chain is (or was?) co-owned by Platinum, whereas games based on existing IP like Donkey Kong Country, Paper Mario, and Luigi's Mansion are fully owned by Nintendo.

There are a few exceptions, like Square co-owning Super Mario RPG as well as fully owning all of the original characters (Mallow, Geno, Smithy etc.). I imagine Square had more of a pull back in those days.
 
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I'm not sure if this means that Dread will be tied to Mercury Steam being the sole developers who could work on it (and rereleases), similar to how Kingdom Hearts couldn't be made by any other developer except S-E, despite it being owned by Disney (or a better analogy, how Nintendo can't seem to rerelease/remaster Eternal Darkness without Silicon Knights).

It's also the reason why Sin & Punishment 2 needed to have Treasure involved. But then again, one could make the case of Donkey Kong Country Returns, a sequel which was done by Retro, despite the series being initially developed by Rare.
Astral Chain as well as Sin & Punishment have been deeloped and designed by Platinum and Treasure. They came up with the idea. If they hold part of the rights, then of course they have a say in it. If not, then Nintendo maybe respects the others devs so much, that they don't try to make a game on their own. Look how they still don't make a new Mother til this day or how they allowed Platinum to use Wonderful 101. Why pissing off other companies if they wanna work with you and you get more exclusives?

Square Enix with Kingdom Hearts would have propably set up some agreement/deal. Sure Disney holds the rights but they would be stupid to not have some deal in place to be the sole dev/publisher for these games. You can set stuff like this up when creating something completely new.

Metroid on the other hand is an established franchise, why should MS have any rights on the IPs? It is the same with Rare and Donkey Kong. They made something for Nintendo, based on their IPs
 
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Or MercurySteam can take care of their own problems. It shouldn't be on Nintendo to fix the problems of another company.

Beyond that, why would Nintendo buy MercurySteam after only two games, in the Metroid series of all things? Does Nintendo also want to deal with buying the 40% share of MercurySteam owned by another company? Does MercurySteam actually want to be bought by Nintendo? Are you suggesting that after hearing the news of MercurySteam's mismanagement, that Nintendo will WANT to buy them in order to fix the problems brought on by MercurySteam's internal culture?

Perhaps instead of Furukawa bursting through their front doors with his wizard hat and waving a magic wand, the better solution would be for MercurySteam to take the criticism from its current and former employees to heart, and start making changes by themselves.
The number of games isn't all that dissimilar from the situation with Retro--and with the Metroid series, of all things!--, not is the problem of management issues, though much else is.
One of the key elements there is the 40% stake owned by Nordisk Games, and that we have no indication the studio's owners would want to give up their own stake.

Unfortunately, Mercury Steam's issues are known and ongoing; it seems unlikely they will resolve through internal means. By this article itself, they don't take criticism well, nor any divergent thought for that matter.
I don't think Nintendo will want to buy a studio if it's a mess internally, especially when they're partially owned.

[...]

Another scenario would be the creation of a brand new studio with former staff from MercurySteam and founded by Nintendo so that they can poach the talent they need without having to deal with the toxic management stifling the obvious talent in the studio.
This is the possibility that's largely being floated around here at the moment. It sidesteps the different issues connected to buying the studio and dealing with management. The possibility of workers leaving and starting their own studio is also a possibility, but, again, that could be more difficult for them than one might assume and is rife with uncertainty.
It's a long-term hope, but non-shithead leaders at Mercury Steam, like the person who negotiated the cuts, are now known to and trusted by Nintendo. If enough of that talent went and formed their own studio, they'd surely remain on Sakamoto & Co's radar and could get a pitch meeting anytime.
And this is a good point going either way. It could either help give a new independent studio an in with Nintendo, or it gives Nintendo an in for poaching the talent.

But the main point we must remember is this:
In the end, the workers are the concern here. They're good at what they do and should be allowed to continue doing so in far better conditions than they have now.
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Wonder if this cut content can be included in future dlc. Im guessing the chance is low but one can hope.
It might be largely that I'm not super keen on DLC in general, but I'm not sure that'd be the way to go with it.
Now, if Nintendo does keep working with Mercury Steam for the time being -- which wouldn't be entirely surprising, I could see this prior, discarded, work seeing new life as a basis for different elements in a new game.
 
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Shame about not being put in the credits and how underpaid these people are. 25k for a programmer? That’s a joke really especially if you’re in game development which is the hardest kind of programming job. Amazing how they still made Dread a great game though. Probably my favorite Metroid game.
 
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I'm going to take this news back to the earlier lack of crediting information for a moment.

Even just at the start of this article, we see employees being fired, despite recently being told their jobs were safe. There were several months of development left, and this could lead to these employees being removed before putting in enough time to be credited, all through no fault of their own:

Marta Trivi @ AnaitGames said:
Within months of the video recording, MercurySteam fired all QA workers except for two people and a large number of 3D animators and modelers. The "Huntress Project," the game we now know as Metroid Dread, still had several months of development left. Also several internal crises to be faced.
A los pocos meses de la grabación del vídeo, MercurySteam despidió a todos los trabajadores de QA a excepción de dos personas y a gran cantidad de animadores y modeladores 3D. Al «proyecto Cazadora», el juego que ahora conocemos como Metroid Dread, aún le quedaban varios meses de desarrollo. También varias crisis internas por afrontar.


Based on what we see in the article, a sprawling and ever-increasing content plan led to employees reaching out to Nintendo, leading to cuts which led to workers no longer being on the project, another circumstance which can lead to the time frame not being met for accreditation. And the workers indicate this problem originates with the higher-ups:

Marta Trivi @ AnaitGames said:
These cuts in the breadth of the project are, for some, the clearest example of poorly organized development, reflecting a messy way of operating internally: "The development of Metroid Dread was quite chaotic. Many times, giving me directions, my lead and the director of the game contradicted each other and this was always paid for by the workers," says a former programmer. "There is talent but many times it is not in the best positions. They handle people very badly and things come out with a lot of sweat and tears."
Estos recortes en la amplitud del proyecto son, para algunos, el ejemplo más claro de un desarrollo mal organizado, que refleja una manera desordenada de funcionar internamente: «El desarrollo de Metroid Dread fue bastante caótico. Muchas veces, dándome indicaciones, mi lead y el director del juego se contradecían y esto siempre lo pagábamos los trabajadores», nos comenta un antiguo programador. «Hay talento pero muchas veces no está en las mejores posiciones. Llevan muy mal el manejo de la gente y las cosas salen con mucho sudor y lágrimas».

Furthermore, being moved from one project to another, whether just at the whims of superiors or as some form of "punishment" could also have this effect, though this individual doesn't mention loss-of-accreditation as part of the punishment:

Marta Trivi @ AnaitGames said:
Another former worker gives us an example of this type of "punishment": "In Mercury they had two projects, Metroid and another one separate. Several developers of Metroid, from the Huntress project, wanted to move us from one team to another and they did it by offering us a salary increase lower than that of our colleagues so the punishment was double, the change and the smallest increase."
Otro antiguo trabajador nos pone un ejemplo de este tipo de «castigos»: «En Mercury tenían dos proyectos, Metroid y otro a parte. A varios desarrolladores de Metroid, del proyecto Cazadora, querían pasarnos de un equipo a otro y lo hicieron ofreciéndonos una subida de salario menor que la de nuestros compañeros por lo que el castigo era doble, el cambio y la menor subida».

All that with workers claiming they were never even informed of any 25% of development time requirement:

Marta Trivi @ AnaitGames said:
In the article itself, the workers consulted by Vandal are skeptical of the figure, something in which all the employees who have discussed the issue with AnaitGames agree: "I was never told any condition to go out in the credits, I took it for granted. I was surprised to read that percentage in Vandal," says a former programmer. "At no point did they tell me how much I had to be or what the minimum was to appear in the credits, they never referred me to any percentage or anything like that, I was surprised to read it in Vandal because it doesn't put it anywhere. I had assumed that I was going to appear in the default credits having worked on the game, especially when I saw that there are integral parts of my work in the final result. It is clear that no one has modified that part of my work," says a former employee whose contributions to the artistic section are evident even in the trailers
En el propio artículo, los trabajadores consultados por Vandal se muestran escépticos ante la cifra, algo en lo que coinciden todos los empleados que han hablado del tema con AnaitGames: «A mí nunca me dijeron ninguna condición para salir en los créditos, lo daba por hecho. Me ha sorprendido leer ese porcentaje en Vandal», apunta un ex programador. «En ningún momento me dijeron cuánto tenía que estar o cuál era el mínimo para aparecer en los créditos, nunca me hicieron referencia a ningún porcentaje ni nada de eso, me he sorprendido al leerlo en Vandal porque no lo pone en ninguna parte. Yo había asumido que iba a aparecer en los créditos por defecto al haber trabajado en el juego, en especial cuando he visto que hay partes íntegras de mi trabajo en el resultado final. Es evidente que nadie ha modificado esa parte de mi trabajo», apunta un antiguo empleado cuyas aportaciones al apartado artístico son evidentes incluso en los tráilers.

That whole area of the story remains a mess, and the developers deserve better than that.
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'll add here that it means more than just fear of making some mistake. If the employees can't discuss pay and bonuses, they don't have any ground to demand better. And if they do, they don't get their demands met; they get punished along with whoever they talked with.
(I know there's a couple of really good Spanish studios, but still, Metroid came out and it became the best selling game made in Spain ever - also people please buy Blasphemous).
I've done so, and I'll also buy a complete physical edition if they ever release that, all content included on cartridge.
 


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