Shadow Gambit developer Mimimi Games is closing down

Posted on August 31, 2023

Germany-based independent developer Mimimi Games, the team behind Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and Desperados III, among others, has announced it will be shutting down. The studio still plans on supporting the recently-released Shadow Gambit post-launch, but will otherwise be “slowly ramping down” operations in the coming months.

“It is with a heavy heart that today we have to share the news that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be Mimimi’s final game.” wrote founders Dominik AbĂ© and Johannes Roth in a post entitled Mimimi’s Final Game on the studio’s website. “As we look back at our 15-year journey crafting games (and crying about it), we feel grateful for the incredible love and support we received from all of you. We cherished every game we made and feel proud of what we were able to accomplish as a studio.”

“At the same time, 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. After the release of Shadow Gambit we decided it was the right time to prioritize our well-being and to pull the brakes instead of signing up for another multi-year production cycle.”

Although Mimimi will steadily be winding down its operations in the coming months, “a big content drop” for Shadow Gambit, as well as a patch for all platforms, is planned for later this year. The founders have pledged to support the studio’s staff regarding finding new roles, stating that “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.” Due to Shadow Gambit’s financial success, staff will also be paid a bonus to assist them during this period.

Considering the financial and critical success of its games, this announcement of Mimimi’s shuttering is certainly somewhat out of the blue. However, in an industry where crunch culture is still often held up as the standard, it is respectable that the studio’s founders don’t want to commit the team to another massive project out of respect for their work-life balance. Hopefully Mimimi’s staff are easily able to find new roles and the final content drop for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew allows the studio to go out on a high note.