Glow Up Games is shutting down

Glow Up Games is shutting down, co-founder Mitu Khandaker has announced.

In a post on Linkedin, the CEO said the Insecure: The Come Up Game developer had been winding down this year and has now closed its doors after five years in business. The studio also shared a message on its website to announce the closure.

"We unfortunately were not able to continue weathering the challenges we fought so hard to overcome for all these years, especially in a financial climate that's seen countless established game studios close their doors," Khandaker said.

"Our mission was to build games [and] tech which centers and celebrates Black and brown joy, and we were proud of what we were able to achieve, and of whatever small impact we were able to have. We celebrated so many firsts, such as being the first all-woman of color founded studio in the mobile space to raise over $1 million in equity funding; but that also shows how real the gap always was. We're grateful for those who are continuing that important [and] necessary work."

Glow Up was founded in 2019 by Khandaker and CXO Latoya Peterson.

At DICE 2024, the co-founders discussed the challenges in building games around hip-hop culture. A few weeks later at GDC, Peterson was part of a series of micro-talks where she called out the fundamental flaws of games funding.