This can be a put up that I’ve recognized was coming for fairly a while, however that doesn’t make it any simpler to put in writing. After greater than 16 years TouchArcade can 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 rationale we’re shutting down in all probability isn’t a stunning one: Cash.
Lots of you who’ve adopted TouchArcade for a very long time are effectively conscious that we’ve had monetary troubles for a few years now, and to be frank I believe it’s a miracle that we’ve been in a position to final so long as now we have. The reality of the matter is {that a} web site like ours simply doesn’t earn cash 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 really nonetheless earn cash within the web of in the present day.
There are a selection of different causes which have contributed to us reaching this level, however I’d relatively not get into all that proper now. TouchArcade was an establishment for a lot of thousands and thousands 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 considered one of my youngsters, and having to say goodbye to it is vitally tough to do. I’d actually relatively give attention to all the good instances we had than dwell on the issues which we can’t 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 just isn’t nice wherever, and discovering new work is hard, particularly within the video games trade. If you’re studying this and you’ve got a necessity for very succesful sport 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 cellular gaming growth right here at TouchArcade. Writing, modifying, managing workers, touring to conventions. I’ve just about achieved all of it. I even have a reasonably assorted work historical past earlier to TouchArcade, together with in administration roles, that I believe provides me a very well-rounded set of expertise. You’ll be able to contact me on LinkedIn or by electronic 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 arms down one of the crucial gifted writers I’ve ever encountered, and if we wanted a evaluation for a giant, necessary sport and wanted it by a really tight deadline Shaun was all the time reliable. He additionally makes use of his huge, virtually uncanny data of online game historical past to search out attention-grabbing angles to put in writing about video games that solely he might discover. Shaun lives in Japan and is fluent in each Japanese and English, making him a fantastic candidate for localization work as effectively. 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 workers. Posting the majority of what you’ll see on a each day foundation, there isn’t any potential approach our web site might have saved working for thus lengthy with out Mikhail’s contributions. An professional at sniffing out attention-grabbing information tales after which posting them in a well timed vogue, but in addition in a position to put collectively large options like in-depth interviews and multi-platform evaluations. His coffee-laden header photos are legendary as effectively. For those who want somebody who can reliably and persistently put up video game-related content material, then I can’t advocate Mikhail extremely sufficient. Attain out to him at howdy [at] failgunner [dot] com.
So What Occurs Now?
If there’s some kind of silver lining to all of this, it’s that for the foreseeable future all the 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 sport evaluations, to not point out all of our yearly Finest Of content material and Sport of the Yr picks. These ought to hopefully all proceed dwelling on into the long run for reference functions and simply to look again and see how drastically the cellular gaming panorama modified during the last decade and a half.
We’re additionally hoping to proceed with our Podcast, The TouchArcade Present, which very not too long ago simply celebrated its 600th(!) episode. There are a pair co-hosts who’ve come and gone throughout the course of the podcast (shout out to Model and Mike!) however myself and Eli Hodapp have been a relentless 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 (almost) weekly foundation.
Associated to that, you might be questioning about our Patreon. The assist from our Patreon has far and away been the most important 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 workers right here. Maybe a random “SwitchArcade” or a evaluation a few notably high-profile cellular sport launch. Possibly we might even squeeze in a Sport of the Yr for this 12 months? It’s only a nugget of an concept proper now, however it will be fairly cool to see TouchArcade have the ability to reside on even in that small approach.
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 beneath.
Effectively, that about does it, I believe. 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 website, listening to our podcast, or attending considered 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 endlessly be glad about the time that we have been in a position to spend collectively.
