MercurySteam’s Blades of Fire, a brand-new action-adventure fantasy game with an old-school touch, was met with actually decent reviews when it released back in May, but it’s performed way below expectations. For the Spanish developer responsible for two Metroid games and a largely celebrated refresh of the Castlevania series, it’s a blow that raises questions about its continuity in the already frail video game development space.
Now, Marina Amores “Blissy” has shared on Spanish games site 3DJuegos her findings on what’s going on at the studio and how things have been taking a downturn for a while now, well before Blades of Fire failed to ignite the AA space earlier this year.
Developers point out MercurySteam never really got on board with remote working, and that’s an issue that hasn’t improved: “It’s well known that, if they could, they’d have fully removed it.” They point out it’s only been kept as a necessity to allow them to have a normal life while also doing in-person work. “It depends on who you are… Some have unlimited remote days… When you asked about these situations, you were generally ignored.” This was in 2024, and things were about to get much worse in early 2025.
The report goes to explain one extra work hour (going up to 9 per day) was introduced in early 2025. Of course, this wasn’t optional, and some parts of the company were later told to hit another hour due to “an intense period when it comes to deadlines,” raising some workers’ shifts to 10 hours. Many would also have to add around 2 hours of commute to the pile. The worst part is that, according to them, all this “was never officially communicated in written form… Instead, managers did so verbally.” The shift was chaotic and the company had no established guidelines (nor a proper system) to properly keep track of the extra work hours.
Pushback from some developers forced the higher-ups to admit the extra hours were optional. Of course, by then, 10 hours were seen as “the new normal.” While developers weren’t forced to hit that number, they were often inquired about the whys and notes were made.
“I told the company my wife was facing a high-risk pregnancy, so I didn’t want to do the extra hours to spend more time with her, but I’d be fully available after my paternal leave… On May 8, back from my antenatal classes, I was told I was fired, only two days before the end of my probation period,” one ex-developer reveals. The company cited a “mismatch with the company’s spirit.”
The full article is well worth a read (as long as you know Spanish or are willing to translate it) and has plenty more examples and quotes from both people who remain at the studio and those who have left it behind: “They play with fear because they know there’s nowhere else to go.”
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