GameEon Studios burned $1M on Mumbai Gullies, switched engines 4 times, never shipped

GameEon Studios was founded by Nikhil Malankar, who built over 150 mobile games to keep the studio alive before attempting something far more ambitious. In late 2020, the studio began work on Mumbai Gullies, an open-world action-adventure game set in a detailed recreation of Mumbai. A trailer released in January 2021 went viral, generating massive hype and 16,000 Steam wishlists.

The hype attracted external funding — INR 9.78 crore ($1.01 million) in total — but the studio was never equipped to deliver what it had promised. The team grew to 55 people, and Malankar gave salary hikes after the first funding round, shortening the runway. The game went through four engine transitions: starting in Unreal Engine 4, migrating to UE5 in 2022 (which increased costs significantly), switching to Unity in 2024 to cut costs (which destroyed the visual quality that had generated the hype), and eventually switching back to Unreal.

The financial mismanagement was severe. Funding agreements lacked milestone-based disbursements, leaving the studio exposed when investors delayed payments by up to 11 months. In the final year, with no external funding coming in, 43% of the salary budget went to the two directors. The studio survived on B2B projects but was still operating at a loss.

In May 2026, after five years of development, four engine transitions, and INR 10.4 crore ($1.07 million) in net losses, Malankar announced that development of Mumbai Gullies had stopped. The game never shipped a public build. The studio reached out for external partners to continue the project, but no one stepped forward.