MercurySteam Faces Internal Crisis Amid Crunch Culture and Falling Morale

MercurySteam, the Spanish studio once praised for its sleek action design in Metroid Dread and its new fantasy epic Blades of Fire, is now facing a storm from within.

A recent exposé from Spanish outlet 3DJuegos paints a troubling portrait of life inside the company: long hours, fading morale, and a management culture that has reportedly blurred the line between dedication and exploitation.

According to testimonies from current and former employees, the team that once celebrated creative freedom now finds itself mired in a rigid and exhausting routine. The introduction of a new scheduling system, called Distribución Irregular de la Jornada (DIJ), appears to have been the catalyst for growing discontent. While officially framed as a flexible work arrangement, employees allege that DIJ became a tool to extend their workdays to 10 hours or more – often without clear consent or transparent compensation. Many described it as a system that started informally, whispered through team leads rather than communicated formally in writing, leaving developers unsure of their rights or obligations.

“At first, management said the extra hours were completely mandatory,” one employee recounted through translation. “They used dramatic language about the company’s crisis to justify the workload, and when people started questioning it, HR admitted the policy wasn’t technically compulsory – but by then, the expectation was already there.”

These blurred boundaries reportedly created an environment of quiet coercion. Developers who pushed back risked being sidelined, while those who complied endured relentless overtime to meet shifting production goals. What made matters worse, sources claim, was the uneven enforcement of DIJ: some teams continued with relatively standard schedules, while others were kept in perpetual crunch, especially in the months leading to Blades of Fire’s release.

When the much-anticipated title launched earlier this year, hopes were high. Yet the game’s publisher soon described sales as having “underperformed,” deepening the internal crisis. By then, months of crunch had already taken their toll. “Ten-hour days became normal,” another developer said. “If you left after eight, it felt like you were abandoning your team.”

As pressure mounted, the studio began to fracture. Reports indicate that by mid-2025, layoffs quietly began across departments. Some divisions lost key staff while others paradoxically continued hiring, creating confusion and resentment. To make matters worse, management reportedly restricted internal communication channels, shutting down non-work chat groups and even installing partitions around workspaces – symbolic of the growing divide between leadership and staff.

These moves have left morale at an all-time low. Several employees described feeling isolated and unheard, their passion for game development replaced by fatigue and cynicism. “The magic’s gone,” said one developer. “People used to be proud to say they worked here. Now everyone’s just counting down the hours.”

Despite the turmoil, MercurySteam is said to be pushing forward with an unannounced new project. Whether the studio can rebuild trust with its team – and avoid repeating the same mistakes – remains uncertain. What once was a celebrated creative powerhouse now stands as a warning of how ambition, when mismanaged, can burn through the very people who make the magic happen.