Mimimi Games, the tenured studio behind Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, Desperados 3, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, is set to shut down in the coming months. The news was announced in a blog post on the studio’s website that revealed Shadow Gambit as its last official game, and discussed the reasons for the closure.
While Mimimi has developed a strong reputation over the last decade and a half, most notably for its sleek hardcore strategy titles, the blog post made clear that these efforts weren’t without considerable consequences – largely, for work-life balance, and the personal relationships of the studio’s developers.
“Dedicating the past decade and a half of our lives working on increasingly ambitious games took a heavy personal toll on us and our families,” founders Dominik Abé and Johannes Roth wrote. “After the release of Shadow Gambit we decided it was the right time to prioritise our well-being and to pull the brakes instead of signing up for another multi-year production cycle.”
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Abé and Roth thanked fans for their ongoing support, and committed to continue work on the newly-released Shadow Gambit over the coming months. A new patch is planned for the game in the near future, as well as a “big content drop” for later in 2023. Following these releases, development work will ramp down.
“We will be doing everything in our power to support our team, and we are now starting to reach out to our friends in the industry to find suitable new jobs for all Mimimis,” Roth and Abé said. The recent success of Shadow Gambit will reportedly aid in this transition, with proceeds from the game being delivered as bonuses to employees.
In signing off, Abé and Roth thanked the studio’s fans, its business partners, and industry peers, describing their contributions as “pivotal for [the studio’s] success”.
“We are now focused on delivering the additional content for Shadow Gambit and fulfilling our duties as Managing Directors of the company – to our team, our fans and our business partners, in the most supportive way we can,’ Abé and Roth said. “And while we don’t know what the future will hold for the both of us, we still love video games. We had a really good run and we are truly grateful for all of this!”
