Castlevania Lords of Shadow Studio Aspires to be the Next Naughty Dog

Spanish studio Mercury Steam has quite the ambition - to be the next Naughty Dog. But it's a goal that the developer is trying to reach one game at a time, according to Konami producer Dave Cox.

Mercury Steam is currently finishing up two Castlevania games: Mirror of Fate on 3DS and Lords of Shadow 2 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In an interview with Eurogamer, Cox revealed that both games had been delayed to ensure that the studio had time to unleash its potential.

"The combat wasn't right. The lighting wasn't right. The framerate wasn't good," Cox said, about Mirror of Fate. "So we delayed the game. We felt we wouldn't be happy putting the game out there like that.

"It's the same approach for Lords of Shadow 2. That's how we want to work. And Mercury Steam has its reputation to think about. They want to build a reputation. They know they're not at that Naughty Dog level right now, but if they're going to be at that level within the next 10 years then they need to put out real quality products."

Cox added that Mercury Steam will be handing the Castlevania series to another developer after Lords of Shadow 2's release, as the team doesn't want to be typecast. "I completely understand that. You can easily get labelled as the Castlevania team and they don't want that," he said.

"They want to be a Naughty Dog type of studio where they have big triple-A titles and that's all they focus on. In order to do that they need to have another project."