In an posting on the site's forum, FileRush.com has announced that the site has
discontinued its file section. File Rush, created in 2003, was originally dedicated to distributing game demos and
resources via BitTorrent. At the time, BitTorrent was a relatively new technology that offered a quick and cheap way to
legally distribute large files across the internet. However, the p2p standard was far more popular as a way of illegally
distributing copyrighted content and as a result it has attracted the attention of the RIAA and MPAA. Due to the efforts of the aforementioned entertainment bodies, according to Hood at File Rush "the constant threat of legal action against users and internet providers has lead many ISPs to block or severely throttle the speeds available to Bittorrent and other P2P applications." As a result, a large proportion of File Rush's users experienced bad performance on the site's torrents which resulted in a 15 to 1 bandwidth ratio between the http/ftp and BitTorrent servers.
There are a couple of points worth mentioning here. Firstly, ISPs need to realise that they're creating a two-tier internet by bowing to pressure from the RIAA and similar bodies. Secondly, this announcement is a clear sign that commercial use of BitTorrent for game distribution is not working. Whether it's consumer ignorance or preference for http over BT, the negative reputation of the medium or ISPs blocking BitTorrent ports, the future isn't looking too bright for BitTorrent as a way of distributing games online.
