Metroid Dread dev accused of crunch and retaliation

Current and former employees Metroid Horror And Blades of Fire developer MercurySteam accuse the company of creating a toxic work environment, saying they have faced intimidation, retaliation and harsh demands over the past year.

These reports are taken from the Spanish edition. 3DGamesin which we spoke with ten current and former employees about their experiences at the company. According to their report (verified via Google Translate), in January 2025, management implemented what it called “irregular work scheduling” for one group of employees, allowing the company to claim one hour of overtime per day. Later, in May, he began introducing a 10-hour workday for many employees.

This mandate was apparently never communicated in writing, but was apparently conveyed through department heads, some of whom have been accused of harassing employees who resisted or took sick or parental leave. The Spanish union CSVI (which represents part of MercurySteam's employees, not the entire workforce) confirmed these allegations in post on X September 30. October 1 another group workers released a statement saying CSVI's allegations were untrue.

The workers who resisted apparently succeeded in getting management to admit that these hours were not “mandatory” but were in fact voluntary.

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However, many were allegedly forced to work 10 hours a day. Others reported being fired for pre-requesting time off. One of them was a father-to-be who told 3DJeugos who told his team manager he couldn't work overtime due to his wife's high-risk pregnancy. Another said she was fired after returning from sick leave, during which her department manager allegedly constantly sent her text messages on her personal phone while she was away from work.

She said that when she returned, she was initially denied access to key systems and not assigned any tasks, and a month later she was fired for “lack of performance.” After she was released, she said the company sent her legal threats for posting about her experience on social media.

full report This is a damning and disappointing read, especially for a company that is already recognized leaving a lot Metroid Horror The developers lost their game credits.

The game developer has reached out to MercurySteam for comment and will update this story when the company responds.