It is a put up that I’ve recognized was coming for fairly a while, however that doesn’t make it any simpler to write down. After greater than 16 years TouchArcade will probably be closing its doorways and shutting down operations. There could also be a further put up right here or there within the coming weeks as we attempt to honor any beforehand agreed to obligations, and a correct farewell put up is within the works too, however as of now our regular every day operations have ceased. The explanation we’re shutting down in all probability isn’t a shocking one: Cash.
Lots of you who’ve adopted TouchArcade for a very long time are nicely conscious that we’ve had monetary troubles for a few years now, and to be frank I feel it’s a miracle that we’ve been in a position to final so long as we have now. The reality of the matter is {that a} web site like ours simply doesn’t become profitable anymore. To our personal detriment we’ve resisted issues like obnoxious in-your-face promoting, egregious clickbait headlines, or ethically questionable sponsorships, which sadly are the sorts of issues that truly nonetheless become profitable within the web of as we speak.
There are a selection of different causes which have contributed to us reaching this level, however I’d quite not get into all that proper now. TouchArcade was an establishment for a lot of tens of millions of individuals over the previous 16 years, and it was my full-time job for the final 14+ years. A strong third of my life. In some ways it’s like certainly one of my youngsters, and having to say goodbye to it is extremely tough to do. I’d actually quite concentrate on all the nice occasions we had than dwell on the issues which we can not change.
Additionally, as a person with a spouse and two younger youngsters, and a mortgage, and all that different enjoyable grownup stuff, that is the tip of my livelihood, and regardless of them being “freelancers” in a technical sense that’s true for the opposite two individuals who have been the beating coronary heart of TouchArcade, Shaun Musgrave and Mikhail Madnani. Which brings me to my subsequent level…
PLEASE HIRE US!
The job market isn’t nice wherever, and discovering new work is hard, particularly within the video games trade. In case you are studying this and you’ve got a necessity for very succesful recreation trade veterans comparable to ourselves, please attain out.
Jared Nelson – That’s me! Clearly I’ve greater than 14 years of expertise working proper within the very thick of the cell gaming growth right here at TouchArcade. Writing, enhancing, managing employees, touring to conventions. I’ve just about completed all of it. I even have a reasonably diversified work historical past earlier to TouchArcade, together with in administration roles, that I feel offers me a very well-rounded set of expertise. You possibly can contact me on LinkedIn or by e mail at jared [at] toucharcade [dot] com.
Shaun Musgrave – Shaun has been with TouchArcade for a bit over 11 years, however has been in skilled video games media for greater than 25 years total. He’s fingers down probably the most gifted writers I’ve ever encountered, and if we would have liked a overview for a giant, necessary recreation and wanted it by a really tight deadline Shaun was all the time reliable. He additionally makes use of his huge, virtually uncanny information of online game historical past to seek out attention-grabbing angles to write down about video games that solely he may discover. Shaun lives in Japan and is fluent in each Japanese and English, making him a fantastic candidate for localization work as nicely. Please attain out to him at muzkind [at] hotmail [dot] com.
Mikhail Madnani – As a part of TouchArcade for greater than 7 years, Mikhail has been the workhorse of our employees. Posting the majority of what you’ll see on a everyday foundation, there is no such thing as a potential means our web site may have stored working for thus lengthy with out Mikhail’s contributions. An knowledgeable at sniffing out attention-grabbing information tales after which posting them in a well timed trend, but additionally in a position to put collectively big options like in-depth interviews and multi-platform opinions. His coffee-laden header photographs are legendary as nicely. Should you want somebody who can reliably and constantly put up video game-related content material, then I can not suggest Mikhail extremely sufficient. Attain out to him at howdy [at] failgunner [dot] com.
So What Occurs Now?
If there may be some type of silver lining to all of this, it’s that for the foreseeable future the entire content material that has ever been posted to TouchArcade will stay on-line and accessible to all. Greater than 33,000 revealed articles, together with greater than 4,000 recreation opinions, to not point out all of our yearly Greatest Of content material and Recreation of the 12 months picks. These ought to hopefully all proceed dwelling on into the longer term for reference functions and simply to look again and see how drastically the cell gaming panorama modified during the last decade and a half.
We’re additionally hoping to proceed with our Podcast, The TouchArcade Present, which very lately simply celebrated its 600th(!) episode. There are a pair co-hosts who’ve come and gone through the course of the podcast (shout out to Model and Mike!) however myself and Eli Hodapp have been a continuing presence on the present because the very starting, and it’s actually loopy that we’ve each spent 13+ years of our lives placing out hour-long podcasts on a (practically) weekly foundation.
Associated to that, it’s possible you’ll be questioning about our Patreon. The help from our Patreon has far and away been the largest contributor to TouchArcade persevering with to exist since we launched it in June of 2015, virtually a decade in the past. Our ideas are to pivot the Patreon contributions in direction of conserving the podcast going, and maybe occasional posts or particular options written by the employees right here. Maybe a random “SwitchArcade” or a overview a few significantly high-profile cell recreation launch. Possibly we may even squeeze in a Recreation of the 12 months for this 12 months? It’s only a nugget of an thought proper now, however it will be fairly cool to see TouchArcade have the ability to dwell on even in that small means.
Regardless of the case finally ends up being, I’ll explicitly change the verbiage of our Patreon to state that it’s now not about supporting the web site, and if individuals select to cease contributing then that’s completely comprehensible. If individuals are giving us cash month-to-month I wish to be completely clear about what it’s going in direction of. Anyway, search for extra information about this within the coming weeks, and on the very least remember to comply with alongside as a free member on our Patreon to remain within the loop. Additionally if in case you have any questions or issues, please be at liberty to achieve out to me at suggestions [at] toucharcade [dot] com or depart a remark under.
Effectively, that about does it, I feel. I communicate for all of us who’ve contributed to working TouchArcade over the previous 16 years–from the co-founders Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson, to the primary full-time rent and future Editor in Chief Eli Hodapp, and to the handfuls of different writers and freelancers who’ve helped make TouchArcade what it’s–we simply wish to give a honest thanks for ever studying our web site, listening to our podcast, or attending certainly one of our occasions. It has been an absolute pleasure to have such an exquisite viewers who appreciated what we did a lot and we are going to all without end be thankful for the time that we have been in a position to spend collectively.