Club Penguin, the Disney-owned social network for kids, announced this morning it’s shutting down. In its place, the company will launch a new product for mobile, Club Penguin Island, which has been in development over the past several years. Club Penguin Island will launch in March, while the Club Penguin game on the desktop and mobile devices will shut down on March 29, 2017.
The closure is a bittersweet milestone for a certain generation – those who grew up with computers and the internet, and learned to socialize online through Club Penguin’s virtual world.
Started in 2005, the site featured avatars of animated penguins (hence the name), that lived in its online world. Users could play games, chat, and build their home with virtual accessories. The company sold to Disney in 2007, in a deal that then valued the business at $700 million. At the time, it had over 12 million users.
