Supercell’s Clash Mini is closing down nearly two and a half years on from beta release, as the developer’s infamously high standards have failed to be met.

Even so, the Clash Mini dev team sees "very high potential" for the title and has revealed vague plans to integrate the Clash Mini experience into Clash Royale down the line.

A miniature era

Clash Mini is officially shutting down on April 25 2024, giving fans six more weeks to enjoy the game before it disappears - at least until some form of presumed return in Clash Royale. In these final weeks, in-app purchase options are being removed and players who have already made purchases can transfer them to other live Supercell titles - Hay Day, Boom Beach or Brawl Stars, to name a few - by contacting the Player Support team.

Players will also be informed in-game of the decision to close Clash Mini and when the date arrives in April, the game will be delisted from app stores to prevent further downloads.

Supercell axeing yet another project isn’t exactly surprising given the Finnish dev’s reputation, and Clash Mini has seen a better run than some of its betas. Floodrush only lasted three months while Clash Quest’s closure already proved years ago that not even the Clash branding makes a game’s continuation guaranteed.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Clash Mini has been an objective failure either - it just hasn’t reached the incredibly high bar set by Supercell, with the legacy of gamechangers like Clash of Clans to live up to.

"Today, we made the decision to end the development of Clash Mini, which was a good game but not the game that would ultimately fulfill our dream. The past few updates of Clash Mini have shown significant improvements thanks to you on all possible fronts that we cared about, but our quality bar was not met even after all those improvements," the Clash Mini team explained.

"We can still see very high potential and love for the game within Supercell and our community. With that in mind, we have decided to commit to bringing the Clash Mini experience to Clash Royale to reach its fullest potential. By doing this, we can better serve many more players in fulfilling our ultimate goal and vision. Once we have concrete updates on the next steps for this development, we intend to share them with you as soon as possible."

Times are changing

The decision to close down Clash Mini is Supercell’s first major manoeuvre since promising "bold changes" in February, announced as a year-on-year revenue decline was revealed. Down 4.2%, Supercell generated €1.698 billion in 2023, described as a "steady performance" as the Clash of Clans team actually doubled in size too.

Folding Clash Mini into Clash Royale instead of just ending service outright is a rare move from Supercell, and suggests the decision to shutter it at all could have gone either way. Either that or Supercell is going soft, and simply likes the game too much to abandon it entirely.

This may be a one-off exception to the rule or the establishment of a new rule entirely - the latter surely the preference for fans of successful Supercell games that just aren’t quite successful enough. And there is cause to believe real change is taking place within the company.

Sara Bach, head of live games at Supercell, gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how the Finnish dev is changing structurally, and shared important details regarding her role in this: "Ilkka [Paananen] made it clear from the start that the overarching responsibility for the portfolio's performance rests with me. The mission was clear - grow our live games!"

Whether Clash Mini clinging on to life is ultimately Bach’s doing, some form of integration into Clash Royale does sound closer to achieving this than a straightforward shuttering.