Dark Horse Retail Chain Ends as 3 Stores Close, Games Launch
Dark Horse is ending its retail business, closing a 3-store retail chain while launching Dark Horse Games. Two Oregon locations will shut on June 30, and the Universal CityWalk store in California is set to close on September 30, 2026.
The move follows a retail pullback that already included the shutdown of the Things from Another World e-commerce site last year. For customers who bought comics and collectibles in person, the remaining physical footprint is now on a fixed countdown, even as the company shifts capital and attention toward interactive entertainment.
Dark Horse Games and Fellowship Entertainment
Dark Horse said the changes are being made “to modernize, strengthen collaboration within the company, and build a more-connected organization across Fellowship Entertainment.” That language lands in the same week Embracer said Dark Horse will be spun off into Fellowship Entertainment next year, putting the publisher, its retail exit, and its new games division on the same corporate track.
“Just as Dark Horse Entertainment exists to champion our storytellers in film and television, Dark Horse Games will provide creators with the development opportunities and creative partnerships needed to realize their worlds within interactive entertainment,” the company said. The new unit will bring Dark Horse properties to interactive entertainment on a licensed basis, which gives the publisher a separate path for its characters and worlds as the store network disappears.
Two Oregon stores close June 30
2 Oregon locations are first in line to shut on June 30, leaving the Universal CityWalk store as the last Things from Another World location standing until September 30, 2026. The staggered schedule turns the closure into a drawn-out exit rather than a single cut, and it gives employees and customers different time horizons depending on which store they use.
“supporting the affected employees through the transition,” Dark Horse said. That is the only explicit operational commitment in the announcement, and it puts the immediate burden on staff who now have two separate closure dates to work around.
1979 to next year
1979 is where the story starts for Mike Richardson, who opened his first retail store as his first enterprise in comics before Dark Horse was formed a few years later as a publisher. By March, Richardson had been replaced as CEO by interim chief Jay Komas, and this week’s announcement completes a shift away from the retail model that helped launch the company.
For readers who still use the stores, the practical takeaway is simple: the Oregon locations are on the shortest clock, and the company is no longer building around physical retail. The remaining value proposition is moving toward publishing, film and television, and now games, with the retail chain ending as Dark Horse prepares for its next corporate structure next year.
