This is a really painful report: Miniclip is dead. The website we knew and loved as kids and teenagers as the ultimate entertainment home is almost gone; the company Miniclip survives, but it is a shadow of its former self. This web browser gaming site will be remembered as the cornerstone that destroyed the IT class and made many of us love gaming. Rest in peace.

The news went all over Twitter and I, like many others, rushed to see if it was true. And sadly, when I access Miniclip (opens in new tab) today, it looks more like a random gambling site than a bastion of joy and excitement. The only two games left are 8-ball pool and Agar.io. The yield is less than it once was.

Perhaps two factors led to this: first, Adobe Flash is shutting down (open in new tab) at the end of 2020; Flash Player used to be used by many games, and without active HTML 5 migration Without support, the game is dead. Tragic, but I guess people will move on and forget about their little browser games.

Another factor, obviously, would be that young audiences these days have a lot of media. It used to be rare for a child to have a dedicated device to access the Internet, but now it is commonplace: rather than going to places like Newgrounds, Nitrome, and Miniclip, they would rather spend their time with a cell phone, iPad, or other gaming device It is possible to do so. And Miniclip is chasing viewers to these new gaming platforms.

The blows are heavy. I miss those days when everything was simple. However, the company Miniclip seems to be doing quite well in other areas. Now primarily a mobile publishing company, it has offices all over the world. In June of this year, the company even acquired the publisher of the highly successful mobile game "Subway Surfers," so it's safe to say that the brand is doing well. But I will always know the name as the website where I spent many hours as a child. Tonight, join me in raising a toast to "Raft Wars."