Castlevania – Mirror of Fate helped avoid MercurySteam closure, why the game was delayed
After MercurySteam wrapped up development on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the studio was floundering a bit. The team didn’t have any new projects to take on once its game was done. That put MercurySteam in a difficult position, as it would be nearly impossible to continue paying employees.
Thankfully, Konami and MercurySteam eventually agreed on a new Castlevania for the 3DS, which we now know as Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. Before the deal was signed, though, there was a strong possibility that MercurySteam would have been forced to close.
According to Castlevania producer David Cox:
“That is the nature of game development. Look what’s happened to [Darksiders developer] Vigil. Generally you do ramp up towards the end of a project and then you do let some people go. But, basically, we put everything into Lords of Shadow. The studio banked everything on it. It was, literally, if we don’t have a project by the end of the month, we’re finished.”
Cox also spoke about Mirror of Fate’s initial delay. Originally, the game was due out at the end of 2012. But Cox told Eurogamer that the team wasn’t pleased “with certain elements of it.”
“We just weren’t happy with certain elements of it. The combat wasn’t right. The lighting wasn’t right. The framerate wasn’t good. So we delayed the game. We felt we wouldn’t be happy putting the game out there like that.”
