MercurySteam, the game development company behind Metroid Dread, confirmed to GameSpot that not everyone who worked on the game show up in the credits. People who worked on the game for less than 25% of the total development time do not appear in the final credits of the game. This news came from Vandal, which GameSpot then confirmed. [Thanks, Vandal and GameSpot!]
According to Vandal, there are at least three former MercurySteam employees who did not receive credit for their work. 3D artist Roberto Mejías, 3D character animator Tania Peñaranda Hernández, and an anonymous source all worked on the project for eight to eleven months. MercurySteam explained to GameSpot that those who do not reach the minimum 25% development time criteria still appear in the credits if they made “significant creative and/or technical contributions.”
The employees who did not receive credit have written their congratulations to the Metroid Dread team on LinkedIn. They also included the fact that they were not credited, despite the fact that their assets are clearly in the game.
This is not the first time that the work culture at MercurySteam made news. MercurySteam also worked on the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series. A Spanish news site reported on troubled developement during the course of Lords of Shadow 2. However, co-founder Enric Alvarez said that a fired employee spread the rumors out of revenge.
Metroid Dread is available on the Nintendo Switch. There are also amiibos of Samus and E.M.M.I.
