Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew developer announces closure

German developer Mimimi Games has announced the studio’s closure, which will gradually happen over the coming months.

The announcement comes shortly after the release of real-time strategy stealth game Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew two weeks ago. Other games under Mimimi’s belt include Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados 3.

The statement regarding the studio’s closure, attributed to co-founders Dominik Abé and Johannes Roth, was posted on Mimimi’s website which, at time of writing, returns a 403 error but can be viewed as a cached version via Google.

“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,” the statement begins. Abé and Roth go on to state that it felt the “right time to prioritise our well-being and to pull the brakes instead of signing up for another multi-year production cycle” after the release of Shadow Gambit.

Mimimi Games was founded in 2011, and the co-founders say that 12 years of developing “increasingly ambitious games took a heavy personal toll on us and our families”.

“As founders and directors,” they continue, “we found it increasingly difficult to strike a balance between fulfilling internal expectations for the studio and being available for our young families.”

The studio will continue to work on a post-launch patch for Shadow Gambit on all platforms and a “big content drop” is planned for later this year. But the studio will now begin “slowly ramping down” over the upcoming months, with Abé and Roth stating the decision was shared with employees at an on-site meeting prior to the release of their statement.

Mimimi has become well-known for its excellence with real-time tactics games. Matt awarded four out of five stars in his Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew review, calling it a product of “joyous mastery of a very particular form”.