On March 9th, KAGAMI WORKS, the Mirror 2 development team, announced on Steam that they had gone bankrupt and that the game's development had been indefinitely suspended. The main reason for this was the fallout from an incident that occurred on September 30th, 2022, when the team announced that the game would be rated R16 and without any actual sexual content, despite the series’ first game heavily featuring explicit content and most fans hoping the new game would follow suit.
This decision led to a wave of criticism from players, who expressed their dissatisfaction and distrust towards the team on social media. As a result, Mirror 2 received a large number of negative reviews, with the current all-time rating on Steam being Mostly Negative (26% positive).
The user review of the last 30 days is only 13% positive
Mirror, the predecessor to Mirror 2, was a highly praised R18 game that combined puzzle games and dating sims with great live-2d performances. The game impressed with its high-quality and very low price (6 CNY/1 USD) and had an Overwhelmingly Positive (96% positive) review rate on Steam. Sakura Games, the publisher and company behind the development team, earned the praise of being "The light of the domestic game providers" among many Chinese players.
A screenshot of Mirror
Mirror 2 was released on early access on January 26th, 2022, and initially received a very high positive review rate. The game remained at the low price of 6 CNY and switched to the UE engine, resulting in significantly improved graphics. However, the game did not contain any R18 content, which led many players to believe that the content had not been finished yet and would be added in future updates.
On September 30, 2022, the Mirror 2 development team released a statement in response to the disappointment of players who were expecting R18 content in the game. The team acknowledged that, saying they were "not clear enough about the '16+' content rating of Mirror 2: Project X when we released it in Early Access" and expressed their desire to create a game like CDPR's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
A screenshot of Mirror 2: Project X
However, this statement caused a lot of dissatisfaction among players, with many feeling that the team had deceived them by turning the sequel into an R16 game instead of R18. As a result, the rating for Mirror 2 plummeted.
A screenshot of the game’s discussions shows players wondering if they got scammed.
While the Mirror 2 team promised to provide a full refund for disappointed players, they asked players to send their requests along with their personal contact information to a third-party website instead of changing the refund policy on Steam. This website was difficult to access in China, and many players were concerned about the potential for personal information to leak.
A screenshot of the game’s discussions shows players were concerned about the safety of the refund link.
As a result, players' dissatisfaction and distrust towards the development team further escalated, ultimately leading to the bankruptcy of the project.
Some players believed that the bankruptcy of the Mirror 2 development team was a result of their overconfidence, lack of transparency in their intentions, and lack of clear understanding of their audience.
In the bankruptcy announcement, the team revealed that Mirror 2 had sold a total of 4.2 million copies, generating net revenue of 18 million CNY, which only covered 37% of development costs. This suggests that the estimated development cost for Mirror 2 was around 48 million CNY ~7 million USD). To cover all the costs, the final sales of Mirror 2 would have to reach around 8-12 million copies, which is an extremely high bar to meet.
Most players who supported the Mirror series expected Mirror 2 to be an "Improved Mirror 1". They did not ask for a high-budget game with a top-game experience like a AAA masterpiece, and they definitely did not want to trade the R18 content for it. Without the support of its players, the unrealistic goal of Mirror 2 is clearly unachievable.
A screenshot of the game’s discussions shows players trying to understand the intention of the developers.
Some also pointed out that the Mirror 2 team had made the same mistake before by launching a Kickstarter campaign before the early access period. The campaign only achieved 13% of its goal and failed. People believed that the main reason for the failure was that the team did not do their research. The campaign set a high goal of 3.8 million HKD (~500k USD), and most of its Chinese supporters did not have any way to send money through Kickstarter.
Some have also speculated that the Mirror 2 team's bankruptcy was a cover-up for "taking the money and running." Believing that the high development costs were just an excuse and that most of the money had not been spent on game development.
Some Chinese players believe the excuse that “development cost cannot be covered” is a lie
To support their suspicions, they dug up the past history of the game's publisher, Sakura Games, which has undergone many name changes in the past few years: from "Sakura Games" to later "Paradise Game" and now "NIJICO." It is not unreasonable to suspect that after this "bankruptcy," they will rebrand and start anew.
Moreover, on a Mirror 2 forum, some individuals claimed to be Mirror 2 developers and said they had insider information about the improper use of company funds. Though many were skeptical about their identities, the previous actions of the Mirror 2 team have caused some to doubt.
As for the Mirror 2 development team, the future remains uncertain. While some players remain skeptical about their intentions, others hope that they will learn from their mistakes and come back with a better game that meets their players' expectations. Some believe the incident highlighted the need for developers to be clear about their intentions and to listen to their players' feedback to create a game that meets their expectations.
Source: Steam