Seattle area-based gaming comic Penny Arcade has decided to roll back its empire-building plans.
The Penny Arcade Report, the company’s video game news site, has shut its doors, and Penny Arcade TV, the company’s platform for gaming-related videos, will no longer release new content from third parties come January 1. The fourth season of Penny Arcade: The Series, a documentary show following the company, will still be released as planned starting in January.
According to a blog post by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins, Penny Arcade’s co-creator and primary writer, the two sites were created because expanding Penny Arcade’s business into new verticals seemed like the thing to do. But now, he says, the company is going to focus on projects closer to their signature webcoming, which they’ll continue to produce.
“But I don’t think I want to ‘grow my business’ anymore; I sort of want to do the opposite,” Holkins wrote. “And I’m tired, sick to death, of saying “Maybe Someday” when it comes to the things we really want to make. So, we’re not going to do that anymore.”
The Penny Arcade Expo and Child’s Play charity both have “lives of their own,” Holkins said, and will continue unabated.
Still, the change doesn’t mean that Penny Arcade is done with new projects. Holkins wrote that the company has big plans for next year, which he says will be “one of the biggest yet.” But at least for now, Penny Arcade’s aspirations towards being a broader hub for gaming media have been put on hold.
Editor’s Note: GeekWire subleases space from Penny Arcade at its former offices in Seattle.
