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.
Despite the love I had for Dread, the price was too high.
It’s not a bad game at all. But platformers and metroidvanias are just past the point where you need the backing of a Nintendo or AAA studio to do a good job. The 2D games Nintendo brings to the table (regardless of all the business structure stuff) are all competent and polished, but they just don’t do anything that isn’t matched by indies any more. Metroid’s visuals might be more technically difficult than my examples of Hollow Knight or Ori, but the end result, while looking pretty good, isn’t inherently prettier. It’s polished, but so are they. You’re looking at preference between any of them over anything you can point to as inherently better, and the two “indies” (I know Microsoft bought Ori partway through the process) have more content.
I’m not going to actually argue they’re “better” despite my first post, but the point is that for $20-30 full price, and steeper sales, there are a lot of very competent options, with a lot of unique approaches to mechanics. It’s just really hard to justify pulling the trigger, at maybe $40 at the cheapest they’ll ever sell it for, with how competitive the space is. TOTK is a $70 game. Fire Emblem is a $60 game. Dread is like a $30 game that should discount to $15-20.