After 12 years, the iconic online gaming website Club Penguin is finally coming to an end.

Club Penguin is an online gaming website that was bought by Disney in 2007. The game gives its users the ability to transform into penguin avatars and socialize in an online arctic world. Over time, the internet grew and so did Club Penguin, which quickly became one of the top gaming sites for children.

“Since I haven’t played in a while, it’s not that devastating but it was a big part of my childhood. So it’s pretty heartbreaking,” senior Ana Monterroza said.

The popular gaming site received high ratings in 2007 with over 12 million member users and later skyrocketed to 200 million during 2013. Sadly, ratings started to decline as the number of new mobile gaming apps began to increase. According to the Jan. 17, article “Club Penguin is shutting down” published by techcrunch, visits have gone down to 5.6 million in the past six months.

For those users who still have the urge to play their favorite game, an alternate version of Club Penguin will soon be available. Club Penguin Island is the new revamped Club Penguin but for moblie.

Over the years, Club Penguin has had movie spin offs on the big screen. In 2014 Club Penguin aired a mini movie on Disney Channel called, “We Wish You a Merry Walrus.” The movie described the tale of a new penguin named Roofhowse who has to assemble with his friends to save a joyous holiday. This interacted with users in a special in-world party.   

As of now, users can still go online and play Club Penguin. The site isn’t scheduled to close until March 29. Until then, both membership and non-paying users can still play online. The site stopped accepting monthly membership users as of Jan. 31.

Club Penguin wasn’t the first millennial gaming site to be shut down by Disney.

One of the first online gaming sites released from the Disney Interactive studio was Toontown Online. Toontown Online was a spinoff of the hit Disney movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” On this site, users were different types of toons trying to save the town from another avatar of cogs.

Users said their bitter farewells in 2013 when the site was discontinued. Many users were saddened by this decision and were even motivated to create alternate sites.

The focus of the new game is to reconnect with the new generation and capture their interest again with this modernized concept. The new app is already available in Australia, Canada and New Zealand and will be launched worldwide in March.

“I think it depends on how much the new membership will cost but the game will be better on the computer because it’s a bigger screen,” junior Bonn Chavez said.