FileFront says 'farewell' ... and get your files while you can!

by James Ransom-Wiley { Mar 25th 2009 at 9:42PM }

Ziff Davis is preparing to pull the plug on FileFront, the game-related download service currently housed under the struggling publisher's PC Magazine Digital Network. In a somber message posted on FileFront, the site's management and team announced that "due to the current economic conditions" operations would be suspended indefinitely on March 30, 2009. In other words, you have five days to spare the 48-plus terabytes of files currently hosted on FileFront from an irreversible *click* into the virtual trash bin. We suggest you commence downloading -- now!

Unfortunately, we can't also download the good people who have kept FileFront running for all of these years. We wish everyone affected by this change the very best in getting back in the game.

[Image credit: tomsaint11]

Oh. Hi! Are you still reading this? Well then, let us get on with our heartless, unscrupulous agenda, shall we? Might we take this opportunity to point you toward BIG DOWNLOAD for all your current and future file needs? That's right. The body's not even cold.

Tags: filefront, pc-magazine, r.i.p., ziff-davis

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

racingfreak92 @ Mar 25th 2009 9:51PM

This sucks, as a PC gamer filefront was one of the best sites to download files. Unlike file planet they didnt have lines or limit downloads to painfully slow speeds.

Big Download has shit speeds

Lennoko @ Mar 25th 2009 10:03PM

1.2 mB/s isn't shit. Far from it actually. I have never had any speed problems with Bigdownload.

rushtodeath @ Mar 25th 2009 11:06PM

I will say this about Big Download:

It's pretty sad when I use a site called Big DOWNLOAD only for it's blog.

Their speeds are shit, and they have very little files to speak of. That said I will probably be using them more lately, because I'll be damn if I give those assholes at FilePlanet any of my money.

Erik Stroud @ Mar 25th 2009 11:11PM

I never have probs with Big Download speeds. Like Lennoko said, they have good speeds, one time I reached 1.5Mbp/s almost.

Though, File Front going away saddens me since I used it a lot.

Tiptup300 @ Mar 25th 2009 11:21PM

Personalliy for all my programming stuff I use fileqube.com

The look of the website just reflects the service.

Ladron @ Mar 28th 2009 2:01AM

BigDownload.com speeds are great. I get max speed always. It's news blog of PC games are quality and it has all the latest demos and patches. It's a great service and is free! What more do you want?

Crusty Magic @ Mar 25th 2009 9:59PM

=[

I love Filefront, no lines and fast download speeds.

This has been a rough year for Ziff.

No bash on Big Download but it's not up to par with FF yet.

Psycho300x @ Mar 25th 2009 10:02PM

OMG NOOOOOOO! This sucks, they were always the best to find mods or maps for any PC game, especially half life 2, CSS ect, THIS SUCKS!!!!.

SirRoxen @ Mar 25th 2009 10:11PM

Damn, that has been my favorite site for game patches and demos for many years. :(

NukeAssault @ Mar 25th 2009 10:12PM

You will be missed File Front.

RIP friend.

drcilindro @ Mar 26th 2009 8:36AM

Amen.

More tears here

KeegdnaB @ Mar 25th 2009 10:13PM

but....where will I get my stepfiles now
=[

=[

=[

Levi @ Mar 25th 2009 10:22PM

I used them occasionally to share a file. So meh. Fileshack still exists for demos, mods are all over the place, and I can always just upload files to megaupload, superfilesharer, or sharefilesnow! Or whatever.

Riley @ Mar 25th 2009 10:30PM

:(
Filefront has always been the first place i look for game mods
this fucking sucks

BigD145 @ Mar 25th 2009 10:37PM

This is why I download and keep patches and stuff. Sites on the internet are not forever.

Oh yeah: Down with DRM.

TheQFactor @ Mar 25th 2009 10:39PM

But look at the timing, it's kinda close to April Fool's. Big joke maybe?

Ignatius @ Mar 25th 2009 10:40PM

Probably not. You're not gonna see a lot of April Fool's jokes about people losing their jobs.

Zeta @ Mar 25th 2009 10:48PM

That is low even for you, Joystiq. I love your site, but i just lost some repect for you. Using one of your competitors death to boast your own site. FileFront was 100x better than BIG DOWNLOAD will ever be.

Pathetic

zkey14 @ Mar 25th 2009 11:06PM

I agree. "F" Big Download. The actual site, not the news blog.

Josh @ Mar 25th 2009 11:13PM

Well, they did acknowledge that it might be 'too soon', for what it's worth.

Josh @ Mar 25th 2009 11:13PM

Joystiq did, I mean.

Zeta @ Mar 26th 2009 1:26PM

It is things like this that drove me away from AOL in the first place. Looks like they managed to corrupt another good group of people. I hope AOL dies now.

Ladron @ Mar 28th 2009 2:21AM

FileFront's layout was a convoluted mess and relevant PC game info was almost non-existant.

Joystiq is part of the AOL network as well as BigDownload. I'm a regular user of BigDownload.com and it's great. Speeds are excellent also.

Josh @ Mar 25th 2009 11:06PM

RIP for sure.

Riley @ Mar 25th 2009 11:17PM

Also, they didn't need to completely get rid of the forums beforehand, people could have still used them to set up other communities for the specific games

Heh @ Mar 25th 2009 11:37PM

I call april fool's. But that's just me.

Crusty Magic @ Mar 26th 2009 1:19AM

If it was an April Fool's Joke, don't you think they would be shutting down the servers on the 1st, instead of the end of the month?

Deck @ Mar 26th 2009 2:18AM

Though I don't PC game much anymore... when I did FileFront was my go to source for everything. Patches, mods etc.

This is indeed a sad day. FileFront was a wonderful website.

Bobby S. @ Mar 26th 2009 2:25AM

I'm going to miss FileFront.

They have the best servers. Downloading BF2 mods at 1.5GB+ under 15 minutes is awesome.

R.I.P FileFront

Quattro @ Mar 26th 2009 3:00AM

Good riddance I say. I'd download a file at maybe 30kbps. When I'd finally finish I'd have to wait an hour and a half to download the next file. Then of course, after waiting, I'd get messages saying all the server slots are busy.

Darkdrium777 @ Mar 26th 2009 4:58AM

You were not using the same Filefront that everyone else was using.

Unless you're actually not wise enough and selected Filefront, based in California, when you live in remote Tibet. U.U

Riley @ Mar 26th 2009 5:00AM

sure you're not thinking of fileplanet? I've never had any of those problems with filefront

Quattro @ Mar 26th 2009 5:01AM

Please vote me down. I was thinking Filefactory. I'm going to go kill myself now for making an ass of myself.

Darkdrium777 @ Mar 26th 2009 5:05AM

Hahaha. Well that's Ok I won't vote you down because you made a mistake. ;)

Foshjedi2004 @ Mar 30th 2009 1:04PM

Dude... Thats FilePLANET not filefront...

t_m @ Mar 26th 2009 5:13AM

I hope the mod makers, patchers, etc... have backups.

I've never particularly LIKED any of these download services, but they provide very useful services and archives... and a surprising number of mods / fan patches seem to exist only on one site.

It'd suck if we lost a whole host of cool stuff because it wasn't available anywhere else, or cos people don't have time to redo all their websites and links. Like the Trespasser unofficial patch i picked up a few days ago.. though i think that was filePLANET.

Paragon @ Mar 26th 2009 5:44AM

That Big Download, plugin?

I dunno, That just seems cold.

Stupidiot @ Mar 26th 2009 9:39AM

I thought that was the point of the joke...
I don't know, maybe spending too much time on a particular website (you all know the one I mean) has darkened my sense of humour.

time @ Mar 26th 2009 7:20AM

I'm gonna miss filefront. That's the only place I ever went for PC files :(

IceKXG @ Mar 26th 2009 8:54AM

James Ransom-Wiley...WOW. You just crapped on the image of Joystiq here. Big Download is not, and never was, anywhere near as good as FileFront. The statement wasn't even funny, just straight up plain ignorance. A lot of good people may be loosing their jobs, a great service is going to cease to exist and you kick it in the balls while it's down?...Pathetic...

Also, LONG LIVE FILEFRONT! I'm going to miss that site. Everytime I needed to download a patch or try out a demo/mmo, that's the first place I went too. Today is a sad sad day.

laurent1066 @ Mar 26th 2009 11:27AM

I love you filefront, you were my first girlfriend and you treated me so nice. so gentle....
BAAAH BOOO

This love for inanimate objects or URL's is very weird. I don't know about you nerds sometimes. You need help.

Rollins @ Mar 26th 2009 9:22AM

I'll miss you FileFront. =(

Also, I don't think plugging Big Download is too bad. I mean, FileFront is going to be dead in five days. It's not like a person died and they're hiring for his old job in the obituary. Well, okay, maybe it is like that.

Whatever, I'll give it a shot next time I need something.

kinghippo @ Mar 26th 2009 11:16AM

A lot of you need to stop treating these sites as your best friends. Filefront is dead for whatever reason. Jim, Ted, Bob or whoever from that site will either go to GameSiteA or RetailJobB. Get your downloads from whatever floats your boat. Whether it's bigdownload.com, fileplanet.com, or whatever...

I used to use 3dfiles.com back in the day and now it redirects to gamespot - I won't lose sleep.

NT_ @ Mar 26th 2009 12:06PM

Being a ZD property, I'm not really surprised but what a shame. There are a lot of sources for patches, mods, etc., and I mostly use Steam these days which automatically patches, anyway. However, think about all the user created videos (fraps, etc.) that have been uploaded to FileFront over the years, particularly by competitive MMO & FPS players.

All those great PvP battles, tricks, machinima, funny graphical glitches or bugs and exploits that have been exposed suddenly disappearing and leaving a trail of broken forum links in their wake that will probably never be replaced -- the original authors/guilds/clans have often moved onto different games, not caring to repost the original file somewhere else. Thousands of fragments of gaming history fading into the ether.

RogueJedi86 @ Mar 26th 2009 1:00PM

I never used Filefront to download stuff(not in years), but I loved the high-quality video player they had. RIP :(

Brian @ Mar 28th 2009 2:33AM

Ziff Davis saw OnLive's unveiling and an hero'd FileFront's staff.

There will obviously be no need for game patches or demos once OnLive launches.

Foshjedi2004 @ Mar 30th 2009 1:07PM

We've backed up the network, we'll not go quietly into the night.

The guys who ran the network are NOT Ziff Davis, we're not letting our friends go.

http://arloria.net/ircrts/wiki/Main_Page

We hope to see you where we set up next...

Stewie/Foshjedi2004
Former EAWfiles Site Manager