MercurySteam employees speak out – 10-hour workdays, unclear policies, and a workplace falling apart

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Despite recent layoffs and canceled games across the industry, conditions aren’t great at MercurySteam, the studio known for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Metroid Dread. A new report from 3DJuegos details serious concerns from people who currently and previously worked there, alleging problematic working conditions at the Spanish game developer.

MercurySteam’s culture of crunch

A recent report by 3DJuegos details concerning HR practices and working conditions at MercurySteam that have negatively impacted employee morale. In January 2025, the company implemented a new schedule, called DIJ (which stands for ‘Irregular Work Distribution’), that effectively requires longer working hours without corresponding extra pay. This system adds an extra hour to each workday, resulting in nine-hour days and potentially up to 45 hours of work per week. Employees report that the justification for this change was ‘production needs’.

Beyond the existing DIJ system, several departments were asked to work longer hours, leading to ten-hour days for many employees. This wasn’t an official policy – managers simply communicated the request verbally. The lack of clear communication created confusion, with little information available and no transparency, leaving even team leaders unsure of what was happening. It wasn’t consistent either, as some departments weren’t asked to work the extra hours.

After widespread confusion, the employees impacted by the changes were brought together for a meeting. Several of them, having researched labor laws beforehand, quickly noticed inconsistencies in the HR department’s explanations. One employee remembers:

Initially, management presented the additional hours as required for everyone, combining the existing DIJ hours with the new ones. They emphasized the need for overtime, creating a sense of urgency as if we were facing a critical situation.

The company leaders dramatically overstated the problems they faced, likely to distract from the fact that their proposed solutions were poorly defined and lacked proper oversight. They claimed overtime work would be flexible, but this ignored legal requirements for tracking and agreeing to it – and they hadn’t created any way to manage it properly.

Employees stated the company didn’t originally clarify that the additional overtime was optional. They were initially told to work the extra hours without any explanation or opportunity to object. Later, HR acknowledged that the hours weren’t actually required.

10 hours a day – a new normal

When the game Blades of Fire didn’t perform well commercially, working conditions reportedly worsened. What had previously been unusual – like consistently working ten-hour days – became commonplace. It wasn’t until May that many employees realized these issues were widespread throughout the company, eventually leading to significant problems. The article includes accounts from current and former staff, including union representatives, who describe a rapidly deteriorating work environment.

Layoffs began in August at MercurySteam. The company explained the decision by saying they didn’t have enough work and that sales of their game, *Blades of Fire*, were lower than expected, causing financial difficulties. Despite this, some teams were still asked to work overtime while others continued to hire. Employees were surprised by the layoffs, quickly asked to leave, and discouraged from saying goodbye, which showed a lack of clear communication and highlighted the strange situation of being made redundant after being asked to work extra hours.

Things at MercurySteam got really weird after the layoffs in September. They started heavily monitoring everything, and honestly, it felt like they didn’t trust us at all. They deleted all our personal chats – anything not directly about work – and kept threatening “random audits,” which made everyone super anxious and quiet. It wasn’t just digital either; they physically changed the office, adding barriers and turnstiles to make it harder to even *talk* to each other. The whole atmosphere just became really tense and uncomfortable.

Team members at MercurySteam are consistently working extended hours, often for weeks on end with only occasional short breaks, and this intense schedule is expected to continue until the project is finished. One employee jokingly refers to an eight-hour workday as a “rest week,” illustrating the persistent crunch they’re experiencing.

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2025-10-15 20:02