Further accusations of crunch culture at MercurySteam surface

Two weeks ago at the time of writing, we reported on accusations from the Spanish union CSVI-CGT against MercurySteam, and their subsequent response. Now, a new report from 3DJuegos expands upon those accusations. They spoke with ten current and former employees, who allege that working conditions deteriorated beginning in January 2025.

According to the employees, MercurySteam implemented the Irregular Workday Distribution (IDD) model for some departments at the start of 2025. This model allows for a single hour of overtime per day, or nine hour workdays and 45 hour workweeks, due to “production needs”.

On May 5, MercurySteam announced that, along with temporary layoffs, some departments would have employees now working 10 hours per day, 50 hours per week, with a temporary ban on remote working and vacations. The employees claim that this change was communicated verbally and not in writing, and when they brought their concerns to management in a later meeting, they admitted these overtime hours were in fact voluntary. Nevertheless, the employees who spoke to 3DJuegos said that MercurySteam put measures in place to intimidate workers into working overtime, and some departments were unaffected.

In a shocking example, one probationary employee claimed that he was fired after declining to work overtime so he could take paternity leave to support his wife during her high-risk pregnancy. Another employee who was vocal in their opposition to these new working conditions was fired, and a third claimed that she was fired upon returning from sick leave. This employee claimed that her department head persistently texted her personal phone during said leave. On her return, she was denied access to critical systems, not assigned tasks, and then fired a month later for underperformance. She told 3DJuegos that MercurySteam threatened her with legal action for speaking about this on social media.

From August 20-22, 2025, 18 workers were laid off with the stated reason being lack of work and poor sales for Blades of Fire. In September, MercurySteam’s management implemented restrictions and random inspections of employee communications, and installed partitions in the office to limit staff interaction. The employees quoted in the 3DJuegos report dispute that there was a lack of work given the culture of overtime at MercurySteam.

They affirmed everything in the statement from CSVI as true, and refuted the response that came from MercurySteam, suggesting they would know if their former colleagues had spoken in the company’s defense. They additionally pointed out that despite the crunch they allegedly experienced at MercurySteam, job postings for the studio claim that there is no culture of crunch.

MercurySteam claimed that since the controversy around uncredited developers in Metroid Dread, they had changed their policy for Blades of Fire. However, the ten developers interviewed by 3DJuegos said this was a request from the workers’ committee that took eight months to approve, rather than a voluntary change from studio management. Further, they reported that some developers are currently  crunching on MercurySteam’s next, unannounced game.

MercurySteam has yet to comment on these expanded allegations. If true, they are damning and very disappointing. We hope that for the sake of MercurySteam’s staff, these issues will be resolved, because every developer deserves fair compensation, a positive work environment, and time off in order to complete their games.

Source: 3DJuegos

Metroid Prime: Federation Force’s General Alex Miles has a face

An unexpected discovery has been made! General Alex Miles, the commander character in Metroid Prime: Federation Force, is an unseen character in that you never see Miles’ face beneath the helmet, and Miles’ sex is never specified in dialogue. Well, it appears that has now changed. u/itsyeboyjp on Reddit took to r/metroid to share a discovery they made when playing Federation Force recently.

During the credits, the characters appear alongside them, including Miles. When u/itsyeboyjp watched the credits, a face was shown underneath Miles’ helmet, which normally doesn’t appear. The face and hair suggest Miles might be a woman. If so, Miles would be following in the legacy of Samus herself as a character some may have thought was a man, but was actually female underneath their armor.

Bearborg, an admin on Wikitroid, was unable to reproduce the glitch, but confirmed that a model and textures for Miles’ face do exist and shared those with us. What a find!

UPDATE (Oct. 16, 2025): Bearborg shared a reconstruction of Miles’ face with the textures properly attached. It’s entirely possible that this was intended to be a reveal during the credits, similar to the famous revelation that Samus was a woman at the end of the original Metroid in 1986.

Source: Reddit/Imgur

Book about the MetroidVania genre’s history to be released in March 2026

A book titled ‘The History of Metroidvania: Decade One—1980-1990’ has been announced, and is expected to be released in bookstores March 3rd next year. It is written by Jeremy Parish, co-host of the Retronauts podcast and Media Curator for Limited Run Games. He is currently hard at work with his Video Works project, and this book is the culmination of over 20 years of work!

We look forward to the release of this book! Maybe we will finally have an agreed upon definition for the term Metroidvania?

More information:
The History of Metroidvania: Decade One—1980-1990 (hardcover, 232 pages, 9”x12”) will be available in bookstores on March 3, 2026 and in comic shops on March 4, 2026. It is now available for pre-order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your local bookstore or comic shop for $54.99.

It is published by Dark Horse Comics.

Source: Dark Horse Comics

Impressions of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at Gamescom

Nintendo DE (Germany) has released a short video filmed at Gamescom, compiling attendee impressions of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The players who were interviewed describe the Switch 2 controls, graphics and performance in overwhelmingly positive terms. One gentleman said he’d get in line to play it again afterwards, and another admitted he took the day off work to experience Beyond.

Although they’re speaking in German, a user of r/metroid has translated what they said, and you can read that and see the impressions video at the links below.

Source: YouTube/Reddit

MercurySteam denies accusations of poor work conditions by Spanish union

MercurySteam, the developer of Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, has been criticized in a statement from CSVI-CGT, a Spanish game developers’ trade union. The statement accuses MercurySteam of implementing poor working conditions within their workplace.

According to CSVI-CGT, the studio’s first game after Dread, Blades of Fire, did not meet the sales expectations of its publisher and MercurySteam laid off 24 employees, justifying 18 of them by claiming there was not enough work. However, the statement indicates that some teams at MercurySteam are now working up to 50 hours a week. It further accuses the studio of restricting internal communication not related to work, instituting random audits of communications between employees, limiting vacation days for several months of the year, and eliminating teleworking.

Since this statement was published, employees at MercurySteam came forward to refute the allegations in their own statement in Hobby Consolas magazine. However, the link to that article in Hobby Consolas now redirects to an error page, indicating it was removed. It was not archived in the Wayback Machine. Below is a cached Google result showing the article was published yesterday.

The statement was preserved in an article on the Spanish site 3DJuegos. This group of employees denies that teleworking was eliminated, communication is restricted or that MercurySteam is under systematic crunch, additionally claiming that there is a positive work environment with flexible hours, 10 days of vacation during the holiday season, and 23 remote work days per year.

With regard to their controversial practice of not crediting developers who don’t work on a game for 25% of its development, the statement suggests a new policy in line with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has been implemented since Metroid Dread and shared with all staff before Blades of Fire’s release. The statement does not deny layoffs have taken place, and admits there has been occasional crunch, but it is compensated with overtime pay.

You can read the statement from CSVI-CGT (in Spanish) below, along with a report on it from the Spanish site Vandal. The statement refuting the allegations is also linked below, on 3DJuegos.

Source: CSVI-CGT/Vandal/3DJuegos

September 2025 News Roundup

Now that October 2025 is here, Shinesparkers has prepared a roundup of the Metroid news we had in September. See below:

September 9 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond has been rated 14+ in Brazil

September 10 – Nintendo Direct announced for this Friday, September 12

September 12 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is out December 4

September 15 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond ‘Power Bundle’ discovered (Europe only)

September 16 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will be playable at PAX Australia

September 17 – Backside of MP4: Beyond boxart may have been spotted

September 18 – Shinesparkers is launching Operation Metroid Prime 4

September 25 – Chris Stuckmann aspires to direct a Metroid movie

September 26 – Metroid Mocchi Mocchi plushies are coming

September 30 – Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Switch 2 slim case announced

In addition, we published two new features: The Vi-O-La Bike, a translation of an article on Nintendo’s Japanese website, and 4 Questions for Metroid Prime 4, with our favorite answers to four questions we asked on social media. Lastly, we published a Bonus Episode of the podcast with our reactions to the September 12 Nintendo Direct trailer for Prime 4.

We have more content planned throughout October and November, ahead of Metroid Prime 4’s highly anticipated release on December 4th! As always, we will continue to share any Metroid news that comes up in the interim. See you next mission!

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Switch 2 slim case announced

A new slim case for Nintendo Switch 2 based on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is coming from PowerA. As the latest officially licensed Metroid accessory from them, the slim case prominently features Samus as she appears in the key art. It includes fabric lining, a screen protector, a built-in play stand, and it can hold up to ten game cards. The slim case releases on October 30 and is available for preorder from Amazon at the link below.

Source: Amazon

Metroid Mocchi Mocchi plushies are coming

There’s a line of plushies called Mocchi Mocchi, which are chibi versions of characters and items from popular games. They have officially licensed Mario, Sonic, Kirby, Suya Suya and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, and now, Metroid is joining the lineup!

Mocchi Mocchi plushies based on Samus’s Helmet and Morph Ball have surfaced on Zing Pop Culture, an Australian merchandise retailer. Each plushie costs $65 Australian and both are now available for preorder. They’ll be released on November 14, 2025. Whether and when they will be available in other countries is currently unknown, but we’ll let you know as soon as they are.

Source: Zing Pop Culture (Samus Helmet/Morph Ball)

Chris Stuckmann aspires to direct a Metroid movie

In an interview with Collider about his directorial debut, Shelby Oaks, the YouTuber Chris Stuckmann discussed the trend of indie film directors getting the chance to direct blockbuster movies, such as Chloé Zhao. While not ruling out the possibility of helming a high budget film himself, Stuckmann explained that he’d prefer to make more original films. That said, if he had the chance (which he doubts) to direct any franchise movie, he’d choose Metroid.

Here is what he said:

“If I had to pick a franchise, Metroid. Metroid is my dream, and it’s not a thing that exists currently as a movie, but the idea of directing a Metroid film would be absolutely incredible. I’ve got Samus on my arm right here. That whole world means so much to me. The lore is so deep and rich, and I love her as a character. But Nintendo is Nintendo, and they’re going to get somebody who’s done a million CGI movies before. But I would love to do a Metroid movie.”

Interest in a Metroid film has been increasing in the last few years. Brie Larson has volunteered to play Samusthe stars of The Super Mario Bros. Movie have called for a Metroid film, and Jordon Vogt-Roberts and Neill Blomkamp have said they’d love to direct it. Earlier this year, former Nintendo executive Gail Tilden shed light on why the Metroid movie planned in 2005 was cancelled, suggesting movie studios were reluctant to invest in big budget action movies starring a woman.

With Nintendo starting to take movies more seriously, with a second Mario and a live action Zelda film on the way, there’s never been a greater chance of Metroid finally coming to the silver screen.

Source: Collider