Big Ideas: Can Penny Arcade last?

Posted Apr 15th 2009 2:00PM by Akela Talamasca
Filed under: Culture, Features, Meta BD

The guys at Penny Arcade hardly need any introduction, but because I'm a completist, I'll just run the basics down here. The Penny Arcade webcomic launched in 1998 on the now-defunct loonygames.com website. Since then, the brand has become a wildly successful website, spawning its own charity (Child's Play), gaming expo (Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX), and video game series (On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness).

Perhaps the best example of how to succeed on the Internet, Gabe and Tycho (as their real-life counterparts Michael Krahulik and Jerry Holkins) have accomplished the amazing feat of growing from tiny personal project into respected, influential gamer mainstay. Yet no matter how big they seem, they manage to keep their indie credentials, somehow representing the Everyman (or Everygamer) with no conflict. This begs the question: How long can they keep it up?

The Penny Arcade business entity seems to solely consist of Gabe and Tycho (founders and creators), Robert Khoo (Director of Business Development), and Kiko Villaseñor, Staff Graphic Designer. Though an exact figure has never been mentioned, revenue from the site and related merchandise sales is probably easily in the low six figures annually, if not higher. Loved nearly universally, the PA guys could probably get away with charging a monthly subscription to their site and no one would grumble. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination to believe that game companies solicit their advice during game development, and it's been mentioned on their sporadically-appearing podcast that they get sent games to review. Despite their vast influence, they're still seen as just a couple of guys who do a regular webcomic.

So it seems that they have the perfect job. They get to say whatever they want through their comic (early dust-up with the American Greetings Corporation notwithstanding), play video games all day, rub shoulders with famous game, comics, and musical artists, and get paid to do it. They've had respectable success with their own video game, and put on PAX every year with plans to expand to Boston. They just keep getting bigger and bigger, and the sky's the limit. So, can it possibly last?

This sort of story tends to end badly, with the once-strong friendship degenerating into a squabbling, vindictive argument over who's more influential, and who needs the other less. Indeed, on many occasions the podcast has featured conversations between Jerry and Mike on that very topic, with Jerry mentioning that if Mike died, he'd just find a new artist and carry on. Mike, in his turn, has expressed more than once that he feels like he does all the work for the strip, going so far as to say that if he didn't initiate the creative process, it might never start. In interviews with outside press, the duo repeatedly make comments regarding their disdain for each other, and that they don't interact with each other outside of the time when they work together on the strip or on other projects. Now sure, it's probably all in good fun, but consider that they've been together now for over 10 years. Many successful partnerships have dissolved more quickly than that ...

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Tags: big-ideas, featured, joystiqfeatures, on-the-rain-slick-precipice-of-darkness, opinion, penny-arcade

13 Comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

This 'article' is an atrocity. I think the author is taking their podcast rants a little too literally. Posted at 2:44PM on Apr 15th 2009 by Sinnix

Apparently the guy above me doesn't remember when they actually did finally get fed up with each other and split up temporarily.Posted at 3:01PM on Apr 15th 2009 by Tasti D-Lite

The numbers don't fit. You suggest "revenue from the site and related merchandise sales is probably easily in the low six figures annually"

They have 4 employees, plus the cost of running the business (bandwidth, insurance, utilities, taxes) and you say "but that's not lucrative enough to keep him and his family in the style in which he's undoubtedly become accustomed to living"

If your first number is correct, then I can't imagine these guys are living a life of luxury. Low 6 figures, let's call that $200,000 in revenue. Even if overhead is as little as $40K (taxes alone probably eat up that much), that leaves a $160,000 profit, or $40K/year/employee. That's not exactly high living.

Do they outright own PAX? That's got to be the big cash cow. If they receive all revenue from that, then I bet their revenue is much, much higher than you suggest.

Personally, I do think they've peaked, but I don't attribute that to any kind of personal squabbles. Nothing lasts forever and they've been riding the same schtick a long time. But Greenhouse, PAX and a reasonable stipend from Child's Play can probably carry them well after the thrice weekly comic and news lose traction.Posted at 3:06PM on Apr 15th 2009 by GRT

I really don't see the point in this article. The only indicator that PA could dissolve (apart from the same boring issues that every company deals with) are the personal squabbles between the two founders. And, in reality, you have very little real ability (save for their temporary break-up) to discern between what is a real disagreement and what is done in humor or publicity.

It seems like a silly time to be questioning PA's durability as a brand and company when they are clearly at the peak of their success with their charity and line of games. Not to mention PAX, which recently added an East Coast event for the first time ever.

Your article is completely one-sided. You fail to cite a source for your claim that "This sort of story tends to end badly, with the once-strong friendship degenerating into a squabbling, vindictive argument over who's more influential...", and the discussion about their job potential after PA is just plain off the cuff speculation. Spare me.

It's just bad editorial writing. Can THAT last? Let's hope not.Posted at 4:05PM on Apr 15th 2009 by Mike

How much did you get paid to write this?

I mean, this is poking around with a stick at best, waxing conspiratorial at worst. Not to say there isn't a possibility, but you don't have much to go on.Posted at 12:27AM on Apr 16th 2009 by ???

Here's the best criticism of this piece I can muster:

http://forum.game-central.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2099&p=28237#p28237
Posted at 3:21PM on Apr 17th 2009 by Evan

Did you pull this conjecture from thin air or directly out of your ass? This is by far one of the best reasons to view blogging as a cancer on the internet. Did you even try to contact the PA team and interview any of them about their business, website, expo, relationship, or what have you? Posted at 3:45PM on Apr 21st 2009 by Hunter

That "temporary breakup" that keeps getting mentioned here was a joke, by the way. Also, maybe if you're going to write an article about something, maybe you should do some research into what you're writing about. Just an idea, but I think it might help people believe that what you have to say is actually worthwhile.Posted at 2:07PM on Apr 20th 2009 by El Geebs

Does the author realize that when the Penny Arcade guys mention "disdain" for each other they are joking?

Maybe you should have actually contacted Penny Arcade for this story, even Khoo wants to know why you didn't check out the forum post he made.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=88269

Also just so you know for the future 12 people work at Penny Arcade, try fact checking next time.Posted at 7:19PM on Apr 20th 2009 by DK

i think everything relevant to the criticism of this article has already been said/posted, but i wanted to chime in: this article was poorly researched, poorly written, and poorly thought out.

this is the internet equivalent of the Daily Mirror, or the Globe, or Weekly World News.

frankly, the little amount of research you did on your "facts" is APPALLING. blogs are still spoken of in disdain, thanks to pieces like yours. and the overall topic, "why this current internet phenomenon is bound to FAIL", is a pretty bold claim that you REALLY need to back up with some sort of compelling argument. what you've put here is just "words words words".

last, i hope you're not expecting to just drive ad revenue for this site, because i can tell you that AdBlock is doing a wonderful time blocking ad impressions.Posted at 1:37AM on Apr 21st 2009 by fightinfilipino

I really did try to find out if what's going on the past comments is just typical fanboy of their favourite brand, but there really is nothing salvageable about the article and nothing intelligent said about the matter at hand

You just picked a topic and started trolling (or inciting a flamewar) about it.

This kind of writing I would expect from 4chan's /b/ not a blogger who gets paid to write

...

So, another writer. What's this I hear about the writer market being saturated? Or is it someone just trying to keep his job? Because you're not doing a very good job at itPosted at 9:55PM on Apr 21st 2009 by Infra

Wow. You make Eeyore sound like an optimist on uppers.

Can't wait for your article on how Google is doomed to fail in the near future as well.Posted at 4:31PM on Apr 21st 2009 by Paul

I'll stay away from everyone else's hyperbole, but yeah, some fact checking would've been nice. The subject isn't a bad one to tackle, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary conjecture, very little research, and zero apparent effort to get the subject's view.

I know this isn't journalism, it's a blog. But if you're trying to make a point, or even encourage discussion, you lop off your credibility to do so at the knees by assuming things that could be found out by simply asking the source, much less by getting your hands dirty and investigating.Posted at 2:01AM on Apr 25th 2009 by gguillotte