I know this post will be a long time coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write. After more than 16 years, TouchArcade will close and cease operations. We may have an additional post here and there over the next few weeks as we work to meet previously agreed obligations, and appropriate farewell posts are also in the works, but as of now, our normal day-to-day operations have ceased. The reason we closed may not be surprising: money.
Many of you who have followed TouchArcade for a long time are aware that we have been in financial trouble for many years, and frankly, I think it’s a miracle that we’ve managed to survive this long. The truth is, sites like ours don’t make money anymore. We do ourselves a disservice by boycotting things like obnoxious in-your-face advertising, shocking clickbait headlines, or ethically questionable sponsorships that, sadly, still exist on the internet today make money.
There are many other reasons that lead us to this point, but I don’t want to discuss all of them now. TouchArcade has been an organization that has served millions of people for the past 16 years, and it has been my full-time job for the past 14+ years. A solid third of my life. In many ways, he was like a child of mine and having to say goodbye was very difficult. I would really rather focus on all the good times we had than dwell on the things we can’t change.
Also, as a man with a wife and two young kids and a mortgage and all the other fun adult stuff, this is the end of my livelihood, even though they are technically “freelancers” which is a big deal. The same goes for others. Shaun Musgrave and Mikhail Madnani are the two core figures of TouchArcade.
Please hire us!
The job market is not good anywhere, and finding a new job is difficult, especially in the gaming industry. If you’re reading this and need highly capable gaming industry veterans like ours, please get in touch.
Jared Nelson – This is me! Obviously, I have over 14 years of experience working in the mobile gaming craze with TouchArcade. Writing, editing, managing staff, traveling to meetings. I’ve almost done it all. I also had quite a bit of work experience before joining TouchArcade, including in management positions, which I think gave me a very well-rounded skill set. You can contact me on LinkedIn or email jared [at] touch arcade [dot] com.
Sean Musgrave – Shaun has been with TouchArcade for over 11 years, but has been working in professional gaming media for over 25 years in total. He’s easily one of the most talented writers I’ve ever encountered, and if we ever need to review a big, important game that needs to be done under a very tight deadline, Sean can always be relied upon. He also uses his vast, almost uncanny knowledge of video game history to find interesting angles to write about games that only he can find. Shaun lives in Japan and is fluent in both Japanese and English, making him an excellent candidate for localization work. Please contact him at muzkind [at] hot mail [dot] com.
Mikhail Madanani – As a member of TouchArcade for over 7 years, Mikhail has been a workhorse on our staff. Posting most of the content you see every day, our site wouldn’t be able to keep running as long as it does without Mikhail’s contributions. It’s good at sniffing out interesting news stories and publishing them in a timely manner, and it’s also able to integrate large-scale features such as in-depth interviews and multi-platform commentary. His coffee-filled header image is also legendary. If you need someone who can reliably and consistently post video game related content, then I highly recommend Mikhail. extend your hand to say hello [at] failed shooter [dot] com.
So what happens now?
If there’s a silver lining to all of this, it’s that for the foreseeable future, all content published to TouchArcade will remain online and accessible to everyone. Over 33,000 articles have been published, including over 4,000 game reviews, not to mention all of our Best of the Year and Game of the Year picks. Hopefully these will stick around for future reference, and just to look back and see how drastically the mobile gaming landscape has changed over the last fifteen years.
We also hope to continue our podcast, The TouchArcade Show, which recently celebrated its 600th episode(!). There have been a few co-hosts that have come and gone over the course of the podcast (shout out to Brand and Mike!), but Eli Hodap and I have been on the show since the beginning, which is really crazy We’ve both spent over 13 years publishing hour-long podcasts (almost) every week.
On a related note, you might like to know about our Patreon. It’s been nearly ten years since we launched TouchArcade in June 2015, and support from Patreon is undoubtedly the largest contributor to its continued existence. The idea is to redirect Patreon contributions to keep the podcast going, and maybe the staff here will write some occasional posts or features. Maybe it’s a random “SwitchArcade”, or a review of a particularly compelling mobile game launch. Survive in such a small way.
Regardless of the final outcome, I will clearly change the wording on Patreon to state that it is no longer about supporting the site, and if people choose to stop contributing, then that is completely understandable. If people give us money every month, I want absolute transparency about what it’s used for. Regardless, look for more news on this over the next few weeks, and be sure to at least follow us on Patreon as a free member to stay informed. Also, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via the prompt [at] touch arcade [dot] com or leave a comment below.
Well, I guess, that’s pretty much it. On behalf of everyone who has contributed to TouchArcade’s operations over the past 16 years—from co-founders Arnold Kim and Blake Patterson, to first full-time employee and future editor-in-chief Eli Hodapp, and the dozens of other writers who helped make TouchArcade a reality and Freelance Workers – We just want to say a sincere thank you for reading our website, listening to our podcast, or attending one of our events. I’m so happy to have such an amazing audience that really appreciates everything we do, and we will be forever grateful for the time we were able to spend together.
