- A lot of staff has decided to take other offers externally, tired of the pace and progression of the company. It's rare that we don't see people pick up their things to work outside (unsure if this means outside the office, or leave to work at a different company...probably the latter). It's incredible that a major AAA studio in Spain (like Mercury Steam) doesn't have the dignity to counteroffer their employees in order to keep them. In this company, their employees, talents go unappreciated. There are no bonuses given...not even so much as an "atta boy"
- When it comes to production, the project leads would ignore deadlines and impose their own milestones to the development. Proof of this is the 6 month delay that came directly out of Mercury Steam's pocket.
- Many people can't help but compare the decline of Mercury Steam to that of Pyro Studios (another developer based in Spain).
- The QA department is treated like cattle and are given shameful wages and are treated regrettably. The treatment of the employees in general is regretable considering what they have to put up with.
- Future expectations are non-existent with a publisher like Konami, considering the mediocre product we made.
- Throughout development of LOS2, Mercury Steam has lost close to 35 employees, easy. This hasn't come out in the media. They haven't caught wind of new layoffs very quickly.
- Lastly, it wasn't all bad...the human element of this company is incredible. If the majority of the people that weren't allowed to advance due to the Jurassic caste system employed at this company were allowed to advance, they could have had a say in a new way of doing things and I'm convinced things could have been very different (in a good way).
- The quality of the employees here is like I've never seen, but were held back. I hope that those of you who have read this understand (or perhaps not) what I've detailed. If no one speaks out, all the frustrations we went through while making the game will be forgotten.
Thank you all for reading.
*** End of translation ***
Man, that's a lot of mud slinging. A lot of it sounds like things we've heard before in development.
I honestly hope that not every person at Mercury Steam has this sentiment. I'm only 3-4 hours in and I'm really enjoying the game so far. It's a little bit of a kick in the nuts if the guys that made the game don't even believe in it.