In a very sad day for fans of real-time tactics games, Munich-based studio Mimimi Games announced that it would close down, effectively making the recently released Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew its final game. The developer said it would still support the title for a time and work on a patch as well as additional content is already underway.
Many fans were puzzled since the studio released hit after hit ever since 2016's Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, 2020's Desperados III, and 2021's Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Aiko's Choice. Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew was the studio's first self-published title.
In short, the founders of Mimimi explained that the decision was made due to a combination of a stressful work situation and limited revenue due to the niche genre.
Making these games was amazing and extremely taxing at the same time. Reaching the level of quality Mimimi strives for is hard and requires focus and dedication. We also have to acknowledge that our future production costs are growing faster than potential revenues of our genre. The increased financial pressure and level of risk became unsustainable. Additionally, whenever our games got close to release and were finally fun to play, a new fight for funding of the following projects started, making this a continuous cycle.
Mimimi's leads also said changing the genre for new projects isn't an option, as it would further increase the team's stress. Additionally, they'd lack the experience to make games in other genres.
It's unfortunate since Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew also gained high marks in our review:
Undead Pirates XXX is an excellent game; the only downside is the reuse of maps. That downside is a little self-inflicted because if you're like me, you want to kill the named guards (named after the developers) and do whatever else gets you a badge (additional side-quest things), so you do it all. Still, this is an outstanding real-time tactics game and one I would recommend to anybody and everybody. Fans of the genre, and those new, you're in for a treat.
At least all of Mimimi's games will remain playable across all stores.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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