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FileFront to close down next week

Published on 26th March 2009 by Joe Martin

FileFront will shut down on March 30th, 2009, taking all 90 terabytes of data with it - so back-up now!

FileFront, one of the most popular download sites for PC games content, will be shutting doors for good next week as the owners of the site bow to power of the economic recession.

All visitors to the site are currently being shepherded to a farewell page which claims the site will go down for good as of March 30th, 2009, with all site members being urged to save any content they have on the site before it is gone for good.

FileFront is owned by Ziff Davis Media, who have unfortunately been in financial trouble for a while and were previously forced to sell the 1UP games network to UGO in order to stay afloat. While Ziff was able to keep hold of FileFront through all the upheaval, it seems that the site hasn't proved profitable enough to stay afloat.

"We would like to give a warm thank you to all of you who have been part of the FileFront communities we have built together," reads the announcement. "Your support has had a meaningful impact for all of us here at FileFront. Again, we want to give you a sincere "thank you" for your support over the years and wish you all the very best."

At the time of the announcement, it's estimated that FileFront has around 90 terabytes of PC patches and demos currently being hosted - all of which will be gone for good in just a few days.

Where will you turn to for your patch and demo downloads now? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

Update: Since publishing this story we've been contacted by one of the network administrators at FileFront going by the name 'Phenix', who says that the team there is currently working hard to back-up as much of the important data as possible. He says that the network admin teams found out about the closure just a few hours before the full announcement went up, and has since been working hard to back-up as much as possible.

The team is currently looking for help to save as much of FileFront as possible - so if you feel like joining in then head over here and get started.

20 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

p3n 26th March 2009, 11:08

Was a nice site, not awesome on the speed front when USA were awake though; theres loads of file sharing sites poping up usually begging you to subscribe so you can 'download multiple files' etc - dont really recall filefront doing this.

1ad7 26th March 2009, 11:09

wow its a sad day in the internets

Gunsmith 26th March 2009, 11:11

damn shame tbh, FF was nice as it was one of the only few big DL sites that didnt force you into registering for its usage.

steveo_mcg 26th March 2009, 11:27

Always wondered how they made any money, their wasn't much advertising and there bandwidth bill must have been enormous.

CardJoe 26th March 2009, 11:30

The news story has been updated.

liratheal 26th March 2009, 11:38

Well that is certainly something I wasn't expecting.

p3n 26th March 2009, 11:39

Im not sure I trust my "BC Files" to Ricksal0224,random bloke has downloaded them; what do they plan on doing next? Making filefront.org torrent tracker? :>

liratheal 26th March 2009, 11:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by p3n
Im not sure I trust my "BC Files" to Ricksal0224,random bloke has downloaded them; what do they plan on doing next? Making filefront.org torrent tracker? :>

..That is actually not a half bad idea.

Consent given by contributors, and job done.

A nice, mostly free, torrent tracker. Which tracks legal content.

Bauul 26th March 2009, 12:08

i did always wonder how someone like FileFront stayed solvent. The bandwidth alone must have been a huge financial weight around their necks.

DragunovHUN 26th March 2009, 12:22

Whenever i was looking for a patch for an old game, guess where i found it? Filefront. Now i'm worried, lots of patches and mods for old games will simply disappear. This is especially bad considering many of these old games aren't supported anymore, either their official site closed down or the developers went out of business completely.

Mankz 26th March 2009, 12:23

Indeed a sad day for the inter webs

docodine 26th March 2009, 12:36

:(

nothing else really to say

RIP filefront

DarkLord7854 26th March 2009, 14:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by DragunovHUN
Whenever i was looking for a patch for an old game, guess where i found it? Filefront. Now i'm worried, lots of patches and mods for old games will simply disappear. This is especially bad considering many of these old games aren't supported anymore, either their official site closed down or the developers went out of business completely.

Yup, I'm with you there.

This would be rather gay if it's an April fool's joke.

wafflesomd 26th March 2009, 14:59

Well, there goes one of the few great hosting sites.

Now we have to deal with fileshack and all those other worthless places.

Zurechial 26th March 2009, 15:51

****.
Filefront's [gamename].filefront.com sites were great little mod communities in their own regard, this is a big blow to the modding scene.

DXR_13KE 26th March 2009, 22:26

ow frack!!!!!!

wuyanxu 26th March 2009, 22:28

anyone got must-have mods on filefront that they'd like to share within this last week?

knyghtryda 26th March 2009, 22:39

damn... this was a great site when you didn't want to wade through the stupid sites like fileshack or gamespy. I wish the employees luck.

Zurechial 3rd April 2009, 17:28

Check this out:

Quote:

Welcome

FileFront has been acquired by the original founders of the site and will NOT be suspended as previously announced. This is NOT an April Fool's Joke.

After learning about Ziff Davis Media's plan to suspend FileFront at the end of March, the original founders of FileFront made the decision to buy it back from Ziff Davis Media.

We're happy to announce to the gaming community that as of today, April 1st, 2009, FileFront is a completely independent company again and is no longer part of Ziff Davis Media. All previously suspended services should be active and working again. We thank Ziff Davis Media for their cooperation and willingness to keep the site and community alive.

Due to the very unfortunate timing of this event and related announcements on March 24th and April 1st (April Fool's Day), we'd like to make it perfectly clear that:

1) 1) The March 24th announcement about FileFront suspending its operation was NOT an early April Fool's joke.

2) This announcement about the original founders buying back FileFront from Ziff Davis Media is also NOT an April Fool's joke.

3) We're making this announcement on April 1st because the deal was completed today and we want to bring all services back online immediately.

4) We would NEVER suspend FileFront as an April Fool's joke.

5) We are happy to be back!

FileFront has existed in one form or another (originally as FileLeech and Voodoo Extreme's downloads) since 1997. In the last 12 years, FileFront has become the gaming community's most comprehensive and trafficked library hosting millions of files for thousands of games while requiring no registration and providing uncapped download speeds. We look forward to improving FileFront and serving the gaming community for years to come.

Welcome home. Game On!

Email us, founders@filefront.com