The award-winning game studio from Munich gives up after 3 strong games on Steam

German studio Mimimi Games will be shut down. After three great matches, it was over in Munich. The latest game, Shadow Gambit, will continue to be supported.

Mimimi games are a favorite among stealth strategy fans. They have been able to win over the community with their games. But now the team has said that they no longer want to develop new games. The latest game, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, is the latest game from Mimimi Games.

Behind the decision lies a lot of stress, an uncertain financial situation, and a lack of options for a new genre.

Three great games that weren’t huge financial success

What do the developers say? Developers write themselves on your website:

It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce today the news that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be Mimimi’s final game.

(…)

Meanwhile, working on increasingly ambitious games over the past decade and a half has taken a heavy personal toll on us and our families. After the release of Shadow Gambit, we decided it was time to put our well-being first and pull the emergency brakes rather than embark on another multi-year production cycle.

Making great games has been fun, but it’s also pushed your limits. Because after every completed project, the struggle to fund the next one will start again. So they decided to close the studio and make Shadow Gambit the last game.

What are the games developed by Mimimi Games? With three great titles, Mimimi Games has captured the hearts of its fans and built a community:

• Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and the standalone add-on, Aiko’s Choice.
• Desperado III
• Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

All three games were well received by players and also garnered a lot of praise from testers: Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun has a 96% positive rating on Steam (27,000 users). Desperados III (96%, 8,000 reviews) and Shadow Gambit (94%, 1,000 reviews) were also very well received.

What is the problem with games? All three games were called stealth strategy games: you fight your way across the map sneakily using lots of tactics and completing different missions. In the rarest of cases, brute force really gets you so far.

But stealth games are a field of their own that attract far fewer users than other genres. Similar games, such as the popular Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood or the popular Commandos series, are known by many gamers who love these stealth games. This is also reflected in the sales figures: games may be great, but that doesn’t mean they sell well.

For Mimimi games, the stress and high pressure are no longer worth it. You want to deliver excellent games, but that’s a lot of effort. The return is simply too low and the financial stress too great.

This is also shown by the stats on Steam: all games have managed to build a loyal fan community, but no game has reached at least tens of thousands of concurrent players. Shadow Gambit currently has about 1,500 active players, and the highest peak was around 4,000 (via Steamdb.info).

And the developers explain that the option to switch to a new type and leave the niche was not there either. Because again that is associated with a lot of pressure that you don’t want to cause your colleagues:

Working in a new genre would raise the stakes and stress levels for the entire team. It’s hard enough to make great stealth strategy games, and we don’t have the experience working on other genres.

What then? Mimimi Games is downsizing quite a bit and wants to keep interest in their latest and final game, Shadow Gambit. A new patch is already in the works. However, new games will not be developed anymore.

If you want to take a look at our in-depth Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew review, here’s what you’re looking for from our colleagues at GameStar:

GameStar: Test: Shadow Gambit is a strategic treasure waiting for you to find