A while back we reported that Spanish developer MercurySteam - famous for rebooting Konami's Castlevania series - was working on a new Metroid concept for 3DS and Wii U that it was going to pitch to Nintendo. Apparently this project was disclosed during interviews with potential staffers at the company, hence the reports leaking online. Rumour has it that Nintendo declined the pitch.
In an interview with Eurogamer which tackles issues such as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2's critical mauling, the studio's break from Konami and rumours of poor working conditions, MercurySteam co-founder Enric Alvarez put a few rumours to rest - including that Metroid pitch.
Is the rumour that you created a Metroid prototype for Wii U and 3DS also b******t?
Enric Alvarez: That's more b******t.
Really?Enric Alvarez: People have a lot of imagination and time to think about stuff, but that's not necessarily the truth.
So you're saying, categorically, you did not work on a new Metroid prototype for Wii U and 3DS?
Enric Alvarez: This is exactly what I'm saying.
Dave Cox: We're primarily working on Raiders. We are doing other things. But Raiders is the focus of the studio right now.
Enric Alvarez: I think this one grew from an interview we did when we were finalising Mirror of Fate. While doing an interview, somebody asked us about what other game we would like to do, and I think the Metroid thing came from that. Or it was about the Metroid influences in Mirror of Fate. The rest is pure invention.
MercurySteam is currently working on Raiders of the Broken Planet along with Dave Cox, the ex-Konami veteran who produced the Lords of Shadows games. Mirror of Fate was the studio's last Nintendo project.
What are your thoughts on these denials? Do you think the rumours were false, or could Alvarez be covering up because Nintendo turned down the pitch? Let us know by posting a comment.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 31
I never cared much for the Lords of Shadow CV games despite loving almost every other one to death, but it's still sad that Castlevania is pretty much dead forever...
Aw, I can't fool anyone. Who here HYPE for the sexy CV pachinko machine?!?!?! DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
seppuku
I'd guess that someone did suggest the idea within the company at some point, and maybe sketched out a few ideas for it, but it didn't get as far as creating a prototype for Nintendo
"People have a lot of imagination and time to think about stuff"
yeah it happens when we don't have anything to do (or PLAY in this case)....
Didn't Next Level Games show Nintendo a Samus prototype which got rejected first but later they were given the honor of creating Metroid Federation Force?
Maybe Mercury Steam will create the next Metroid game.
Too bad everyone hated mirror of fate, it was fun, we could have seen more.
People wanted another Ds game, and we got an HD remake of the NES trilogy.
Maybe Konami threatened to lock them in a cupboard if they decided to pursue outside activities.
Not uncommon for people to hear what they want instead of what was actually said.
I'm still relieved. None of the existing games that Mercury Steam have created are (in my opinion) particularly good, so I wouldn't trust them to make a decent Metroid game. On the other hand, it's not like the last couple of games in the series have been that hot either...
Rumours constantly spread round the internet like wildfire and often there is no basis for them. There's no real way of knowing in this case.
As for the Lords of Shadow games, I enjoyed them and think Lords of Shadow 2 is seriously underrated. I would have no problems recommending it to people and it is a shame it has such a bad reputation. It has an excellent combat system with quite a lot of depth. I never had any problems with the stealth sections people bemoan. There were only a few stealthy moments anyway.
I'll always prefer the IGAvanias, however. They're gaming nirvana for me and I can't wait for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
@Dakt Incorrect. You have no idea of the work that went into it. MS embarrassed themselves by letting this leak and now they're trying to cover it up.
Isn't it strange how all of these many sites reporting on them are all "lying"? I don't buy into any of this.
Translation: It's in development again and coming out 2017!
I'm glad they never touched it. Their games suck to be honest, even though I quite enjoyed Mirror of Fate.
@Dakt I've seen the prototype with my own eyes, so get down off your high horse. It was an open secret in the industry at the time and numerous people will back me up on that. I wasn't even the first to report on this.
Meh Mirrors of Fate was rubbish anyway.
@Dakt It's my word and a dozen other people's, yes. Again, I wasn't the first person to report on this.
Also, damage control? The hell are you on about?
I remember being disappointed with the Mirrors of Fate demo. Looking back, it's probably not a bad game. It just had the musfortune to have the castlevania title and release on a Nintendo portable. So, once I discovered the platforming parts were terrible and had no flow - the game was dead to me. I love the hypnotic gameplay flow of castlevania, but have a western developer make a 2-D platformer and they'll make it feel like your trying to control a pillow case full of rocks.
@Dakt Enjoy being spoonfed PR-friendly delusions by corporations, then.
Doubtful. I'm just glad it never picked up steam because then we'd have to reboot the series just accommodate their version of the game, just like they did with Castlevania.
"People have a lot of imagination and time to think about stuff, but that's not necessarily the truth."
That's the internet!
I think it may have been truth. From what I've read, Álvarez has a serious ego problem. It wouldn't sit well with him to say "Yeah, Nintendo turned us down".
Anyway, just stay very far From Metroid, Mercurysteam. You guys are the reason (alongside Konami) that Castlevania is dead.
Interesting denial. The concept of Raiders of the Broken Planet lines up with a lot of what Liam originally reported (and this was long before the game was shown off). Add to that Castlevania was rebooted by them through this type of move and its cause for suspicion.
There are only another 2 instances I'm aware this happened and one was denied for years before eventually being forced to spill.
@Dakt "Yeah I think I'll trust the studio over a number of "journalists" with poor track records, thanks."
Yeah, because the owner of the studio which was basically blocked from making a new Metroid by Nintendo is REALLY going to admit to that, right?
As @LiamR has stated, more than one source came forward on this and more than one source claimed that MS were talking openly about the pitch during interviews with potential staffers. Multiple sources don't usually come up with the same "bogus" story.
And as for the Devil's Third thing, do you honestly believe Nintendo of America wasn't thinking about dropping the game? They clearly did a 180 on that decision, but when it DID eventually come out, it was download-only and wasn't even given a big mention in that week's eShop PR email. It was put out to die and I've heard from multiple sources that NoA very nearly bailed on it altogether.
I love it how NoA basically putting the game out in the weakest form possible with no publicity (and not even a physical release) is somehow taken by people as proof that Liam was wrong. Think back to when the game was announced at E3, Nintendo was hyping it as a AAA exclusive - then when it comes to the US, it's a download released with little fanfare. Doesn't that seem strange to you on any level whatsoever?
I remember some rather ugly concept art that made Samus look radically different. Maybe that was from another company...can't recall right now.
Journalist: Did you create a Metroid prototipe for Nintendo?
Dev: Nope.
Journalist: Are you sure?
Dev: Yeap.
Journalist: So... did you created or not?
Dev: No, I didn't. Let's talk about what I'm actually doing.
Journalist: So the rumors weren't true?
¬.¬
And yet this is what journalists do...
@Damo Not to mention the campaign of their new game being played from different perspectives. I'm going to say either Liam made some incredibly lucky guesses when dreaming this up or Alvarez is the only one BSing. My BS detector went off a few times during that interview. He claims only 1 person who worked there spoke out against him but that contradicts the many Spanish media outlets claiming there was far more then 1 angry employee. I also notice they didn't deny the original claim that Kojima visited only once during Lords of Shadow 2 (they danced around it).
@dronesplitter it was Next Level Games that pitched that one. It was turned down in favour of Luigi's Mansion 2.
@Sentinator Yeah, no smoke without fire. The reports regarding the working conditions at the studio were pretty damning, and the guy who would be largely to blame for that is hardly going to admit it. I'm sure there are two sides to the story however.
I still like LoS2 tbh.
@Dakt ""Multiple sources" could be as simple as multiple outlets going to the same bloody source, don't even deny this crap happens because it's extremely prevalent."
Nope, multiple sources as in multiple people saying the same thing, not a single site using the same source.
RE: Devil's Third - if you honestly think that a game that was billed as a AAA hit at one E3 and then sent out to die at retail isn't a case of Nintendo flip-flopping on publishing, then you really are on another planet.
And all of the examples you site had much more of a push from Nintendo than Devil's Third.
But you keep believing what you want to believe. Makes no difference to me personally. Have a good one!
@Dakt Even if it was a single source do you honestly think they could have dreamed up the campaign being played from multiple perspectives? It isn't exactly a main stream feature. For MercurySteam's latest game to have that the source must either have made a lucky guess about what concepts they were considering or they knew about it.
The problem with the logic that this Metroid was fabricated is a lot of the concept is in Raiders. True the campaign being played from different perspectives has been thrown around a lot but few actually go out of their way to do it. Many occasions have other characters take over mid story because it is very difficult to add in.
Plus they admitted they made Castlevania in the same way so it isn't something they haven't done before. Why not try it with Metroid as well?
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
@Dakt lol
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