Paddy McGrath: I contributed to Speedhunters pretty much full time from 2009 until 2021, with a few posts per year in 2022 & 2023. I can't express how much love I have for Speedhunters, for the people I got to work with and the adventures it afforded me. It was one of the greatest privileges of my career.
I haven't been involved in any meaningful way with the site over the last few years (although my name is still listed as a contributor) but I did have the intention of submitting stories when I could in the future, but that doesn't look like it's going to be possible anymore.
FWIW, there were so many times that Speedhunters was circling the drain over the last decade. We rarely knew ahead of time if our contracts would be renewed each year. A lot of brilliant and dedicated people put a lot of work in to keep things going as long as it did.
As you might know, Speedhunters was founded and supported by EA from day one. It wouldn't have existed without them. However, Speedhunters was such a small project in an otherwise massive company that it was never going to get the attention & resources it needed to grow, IMO. Why would they spend time on a website selling some merchandise when they have multiple billion dollar video game brands to tend to?
As time passed, and the original EA people involved in the creation of Speedhunters moved onto other things, it became more and more difficult to keep the project afloat. I knew this day was inevitable, so made the decision years ago to diversify my client base and take all of my eggs out of the Speedhunters basket.
I am genuinely sad that this does look like the end for it, it deserved so much better.
