The Frustrating Mystery Of Who Makes Nintendo Games

Whenever a Nintendo game gets a splashy reveal in a Direct, my immediate hype takes on a few forms. I’ll replay the trailer at least once, then I’ll start going frame by frame. I scour Nintendo’s websites for concrete information, then I read up on Reddit comments and theories to see what other people noticed that I might have missed. And then, I watch the trailer yet again. But almost every single time, my brain lands on the same question: Who the hell made this thing? The most recent catalyst for this vicious hype cycle was Metroid Ravenous, a game that looks remarkably like 2021’s Metroid Dread. That game was made in collaboration with Spanish studio MercurySteam, but I saw no mention of that company anywhere in Nintendo’s promotional materials immediately after the reveal. Being the inquisitive and nosy neurodivergent person that I am, my mind subsequently went down a rabbit hole, contemplating why Nintendo is so averse to talking about this. Nintendo’s devoted fanbase is many things, but one constant is that fans will never stop being curious. They are always seeking out specifics, no matter how trivial the subject, from the nuances of the Zelda timeline to whatever Mario’s c…