Metroid Dread Contributors Are Complaining They Weren’t Properly Credited
Metroid Dread has been the talk of the town since its official launch. However, a recent issue has caused a great amount of debate and criticism of developer MercurySteam with regards to the game’s credits. Many contributors have complained that they were not properly credited.
“The policy of the studio require that anyone must work on the project for at least 25% of the total development of the game to appear in the final credits,” MercurySteam wrote in their statement. “Sometimes, exceptions are made when making exceptional contributions.”
Two of Metroid Dread’s contributors have raised their cases, stating that they worked on the project for 8 to 11 months. MercurySteam’s required threshold of “25% of the total development” is somewhat vague and is pretty much open to be take advantage of. The debate is centered on what the devs consider as the starting point for this 25%. Whether it begins during brainstorming discussions, or when pitches have been made, or during the game’s developmental stage itself remains unclear to the entire Metroid Dread community.
It has become apparent that contributors can work on a project for as long as nearly a year during the game’s most productive phase, contributing a whole lot of content to the broader game, and not be credited. It is also very common practice for game makers to recruit new hires on fixed and short term contracts. The development of big games can dramatically swell in a relatively short period of time, and any temporary contracts could lapse. It remains unclear if this is what happened here, but such situation has been reported to be very common in the gaming world.
Considering that this happens across different industries, it is somewhat inaccurate to portray MercurySteam as a lone offender in this regard. Those who perform multiple roles and contribute content to a project, and then move on after their contracts, are sometimes ignored, or simply acknowledged in a generic Special Thanks section.