[GameSpot] - Weeks After Releasing An Acclaimed Game, A 15-Year-Old Studio Is Shutting Down

[343iBot]

Developer Mimimi has announced that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew will be its final game, as the studio will be shutting down over the next couple of months. In a blog post, Mimimi explained that a variety of reasons led to its decision to close up shop, with the "increased financial pressure and level of risk" in producing a video game being a big factor. As Mimimi explained, crafting any video game requires an extraordinary amount of energy and passion, resources that ultimately pulled developers away from their loved ones and families.

"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," studio founders Dominik Abe and Johannes Roth wrote, less than two weeks after the launch of Shadow Gambit.

"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 added that the company had been working non-stop on games ever since it successfully pitched The Last Tinkerer in 2011 and that it found it increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy work/life balance. "We never expected this would be how Mimimi ends. But if even one of us were to break down, fail or burn out, the situation would escalate quickly. Ultimately, managing a production on this scale, in combination with an extremely competitive market, proved to be too taxing for us."

Shadow Gambit will still see post-launch support, as Mimimi added that it's working on a patch across all platforms and will have a big content drop arriving later this year. Employees of the studio will be supported as Mimimi's management leverages its industry connections to find suitable new jobs for its staff, and thanks to the sales of Shadow Gambit, employees have also been paid a bonus during this transitional period. Mimimi's other games include Desperados 3, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, and The Last Tinker: City of Chaos.

Mimimi's final game launched to generally positive reviews, receiving a 9/10 in GameSpot's Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew review. "Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is, through and through, a delight," Steve Watts wrote. "The inventive setting, swashbuckling macabre tone, an enjoyable cast of phenomenal characters, and a compelling gameplay loop all come together for a uniquely satisfying stealth-strategy experience. I can not only recommend it, but I truly hope it's the start of a franchise so that I can spend more time with me mateys."

It has been a tough month in the job industry as BioWare announced big job cuts as part of an effort to shift towards a "more agile and more focused" studio.

View the full article