The German studio Mimimi Games is closing. After three great games, it is now over in Munich. However, the latest game, Shadow Gambit, will continue to receive support.
Mimimi Games is considered a favorite among stealth strategy fans. With their games, they have gained a community. But now the team announced that they no longer want to develop new games. The latest game Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is the last game from Mimimi Games.
Behind the decision are too much stress, an uncertain financial situation, and no options for a new genre.
Three great games that never achieved great financial success
What do the developers say? The developers themselves write on their website:
With a heavy heart, we must announce today that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be the last game from Mimimi.
(…)
At the same time, the work on ever more ambitious games over the last one and a half decades has taken a heavy personal toll on us and our families. After the release of Shadow Gambit, we decided that it was time to prioritize our well-being and pull the emergency brake rather than engage in another multi-year production cycle.
It has been fun to develop great games, but they have also pushed us to our limits. Because after every completed project, the battle for financing the next project would start again. So we decided to close the studio and make “Shadow Gambit” the last game.
Which games did Mimimi Games develop? Especially with three great titles, Mimimi Games captured the hearts of its fans and created a community:
- Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and the stand-alone expansion Aiko’s Choice.
- Desperados III
- Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
All three games were well received by players and also received much praise from testers: Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun gets 96% positive reviews on Steam (27,000 users). Desperados III (96%, 8,000 reviews) and Shadow Gambit (94%, 1,000 reviews) also perform very well.
What is the problem with the games? All three games were so-called stealth strategy games: You sneak your way across the map and complete various missions with much strategy. With sheer brute force, you rarely got very far.
But stealth games are a niche that appeals to significantly fewer users than other genres. Similar games, such as the popular Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood or the well-known Commandos series, are known to many players who enjoy such stealth games. This is also reflected in the sales figures: The games may be great, but that doesn’t mean they sell well.
For Mimimi Games, it seems that the stress and the high pressure are no longer worth it. While they want to deliver excellent games, it is a considerable effort. And the return for that is simply too low, and the financial pressure is too high.
The statistics on Steam also show this: All games have been able to build a loyal fan base, but no game reached at least tens of thousands of simultaneous players. Shadow Gambit currently has about 1,500 active players, with the highest peak being around 4,000 (via steamdb.info).
And the option to switch to a new genre and leave the niche would not have been there, the developers explain. Because that would again be associated with great stress, which they do not want to impose on their colleagues:
Working in a new genre would further increase the risks and stress level for the entire team. It is already hard enough to develop great stealth strategy games, and we simply lack the experience from working in other genres.
What happens next? Mimimi Games will be significantly downsized and will continue to take care of the latest and last game, Shadow Gambit. A new patch is already in the works. However, no new games will be developed.
If you now want to see a detailed review of Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, you will find it at our colleagues from GameStar:
GameStar: Review: Shadow Gambit is a strategy treasure waiting to be discovered by you
A shocking message for many loyal players
I love the games from Mimimi Games, Desperados III alone kept me fascinated for hours. And I also have many acquaintances who rave about the games. All three games were excellent and offered depth and relied on tactical approaches. Unfortunately, it is no longer enough these days to be only
excellent.
The end of Mimimi Games leaves me somewhat speechless, especially since all the games were really good. Desperados III was genuinely brilliant and could heal all the wounds that the failed Desperados 2 from Spellbound had opened for me. For me, a dream came true when Desperados III landed with the stealth experts from Mimimi Games.
For me and many other players, the team revived a long-lost genre with its games, and it makes me sad that it should end like this now. However, I can understand the decision if the time of Mimimi Games is now coming to an end.
Benedikt Schlotmann
Hardware editor MeinMMO
