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 for all your current and future file needs? That's right. The body's not even cold.
Reader Comments (48)
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 9:51PM (Unverified) said
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
Reply
Big Download has shit speeds
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 11:06PM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 28th 2009 2:01AM (Unverified) said
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?
Reply
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 9:59PM Crusty Magic said
=[
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 10:11PM (Unverified) said
Damn, that has been my favorite site for game patches and demos for many years. :(
Reply
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 10:39PM (Unverified) said
But look at the timing, it's kinda close to April Fool's. Big joke maybe?
Reply
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 10:48PM bradphillips204 said
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
Reply
Pathetic
Posted: Mar 25th 2009 11:13PM JoshMilewski said
Well, they did acknowledge that it might be 'too soon', for what it's worth.
Reply
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 1:26PM bradphillips204 said
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.
Reply
Posted: Mar 28th 2009 2:21AM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 1:19AM Crusty Magic said
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?
Reply
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 5:13AM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 7:20AM ripvanwinkle said
I'm gonna miss filefront. That's the only place I ever went for PC files :(
Reply
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 8:54AM iceKXG said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 11:27AM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
BAAAH BOOO
This love for inanimate objects or URL's is very weird. I don't know about you nerds sometimes. You need help.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 9:22AM Rollins said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 11:16AM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
I used to use 3dfiles.com back in the day and now it redirects to gamespot - I won't lose sleep.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 12:06PM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
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.
Posted: Mar 26th 2009 1:00PM RogueJedi86 said
I never used Filefront to download stuff(not in years), but I loved the high-quality video player they had. RIP :(
Reply
Posted: Mar 28th 2009 2:33AM (Unverified) said
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.
Reply
There will obviously be no need for game patches or demos once OnLive launches.
Posted: Mar 30th 2009 1:07PM (Unverified) said
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
Reply
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
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