MercurySteam cuts staff after Blades of Fire underperforms commercially

The studio behind Metroid Dread is trimming staff after Blades of Fire fell short commercially, a reminder that one of Nintendo’s most important external partners can still swing from marquee work to sudden workforce churn between releases. MercurySteam said in a mid-May LinkedIn post that it was making a workforce adjustment process, did not disclose how many people were affected, and said it would handle the situation with care while helping employees find new roles.

MercurySteam also framed the cuts as part of a familiar industry rhythm, calling it something common in production cycles while still describing it as a difficult and painful situation. The studio invited other companies looking for experienced developers to get in touch, a signal that some of the people who helped build its most recognizable games could soon be back in the wider hiring pool.

That matters to Nintendo because MercurySteam is not just another outside contractor. The Spanish studio worked with Nintendo on Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, and Nintendo’s own Metroid Dread materials describe that game as a collaboration between the two companies. Nintendo also positioned Dread as the end of the Samus and Metroids storyline that began on the original NES Metroid, which made MercurySteam part of the franchise’s modern canon as well as its production history. When that kind of partner contracts, the effect can reach beyond payroll and into future staffing, continuity and the stability of the talent bench that supports long-running action-adventure series.

The pressure on MercurySteam sharpened after Blades of Fire underperformed. The game was officially introduced in 2025 by MercurySteam and 505 Games, with a launch date of May 22, 2025 for Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. 505 Games later listed a Steam release date of May 14, 2026. In October 2025, Game Developer reported allegations from ten current and former MercurySteam employees, through 3DJuegos, that management had imposed an “Irregular Workday Distribution” in January 2025 and later required 10-hour workdays beginning in May 2025. The Spanish union CSVI publicly affirmed those allegations on September 30, 2025, while another group of workers disputed them the next day.

For Nintendo teams that manage outside studios, the lesson is familiar: partner health is not a back-office detail. It affects institutional memory, production stability and how much of a franchise’s hard-won quality culture can survive from one project to the next.