That‘a according to the latest earnings from Nordisk Games, which owns a minority stake in the developer. According to the filings, the studio is working on “two large undisclosed titles”.
It’s likely that one of the games that’s being referred to is the fantasy title that the studio is working on with publisher 505 Games, details of which have yet to be fully shared. However, the identity of the second title is unknown.
Codenamed Project Iron, the multiplatform fantasy game has an initial development budget of €27 million ($30.7 million).
“We are thrilled to work with the team at MercurySteam, a proven studio that over the years has created numerous phenomenal IPs – including the recent hit release Metroid Dread in partnership with Nintendo,” said Raffi and Rami Galante, co-CEOs of Digital Bros at the time of the announcement.
“With MercurySteam’s creative vision and talent and 505 Games extensive experience, gamers can expect a high-quality, captivating and engaging videogame.”
I loved Metroid: Dread, it was a really polished game, looking forward to whatever the developers make next.
BTW the article only talks about one of the two games, so maybe the second game is next Metroid, but I don’t think Nintendo will make next Metroid so soon.
Just been replaying Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but I very much doubt the sequel is what they’re working on.
First game - amazing art, very imaginative, solid gameplay, great engine, pretty decent plot, good level design with a reasonable balance between fighting, exploration, and puzzling. A bit flawed - gameplay-wise, the camera hates you, you’re a liability in the air, and it takes far too long to get given your basic equipment - and it’s also far too QTE and exposition heavy, assumes that you’ve an attention span of about four seconds before you need a reminder. But it was the style at the time, and it’s a great game, especially in the second half.
Sequel sorts out your bad air controls and gives you your weapons up-front. Retains the awesome art and design in the Castlevania sections, but contrasts them with the boring-as-fuck awful ‘city’ levels where you spend most of your time. Includes far too many lengthy instant-fail sections where you’re sneaking about as rats, or hiding behind pillars from some dudes - I’m Dracula, for fuck’s sake. Voice actors all sound bored to be there. Still assumes that you’re a goldfish that loves doing QTEs. Could also make a great game by only including half of it, but unfortunately the good bits are mixed in with the shite bits, rather than having a slow start and a strong finish.
Really interested to see what they’re going to do - rarely have I seen a developer that can achieve such great things, but execute on them so badly, and fail to recognise what needs to be left on the cutting room floor.
Let’s hope they have learned from that.