FileFront
 |
|
|
Type of site
|
Video games |
|---|---|
| Owner | DBolical Pty Ltd. |
| Website | GameFront.com |
| Alexa rank |
 12,830 (February 2015[update]) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Not required File up- and downloading services works only in specified countries |
| Launched | 1999 |
| Current status | Active |
GameFront is a video game website that provided patches, demos, modifications, and other user generated game related content to users in selected countries. On April 14, 2016, GameFront announced that the site would be shutting down on April 30, 2016. The GameFront file service was later recreated.
In August 2016, DBolical Pty Ltd., owners of ModDB, acquired GameFront from Defy Media and relaunched the website.
FileLeech was created by I/O Error Development and first launched in 1999. In 2001, FileLeech was renamed FileFront and re-launched. It was bought by the Ziff Davis Media Game Group in the late half of 2005.
On January 6, 2009, UGO Networks acquired 1UP.com. FileFront was not part of the purchase and became part of the PC Magazine Digital Network.
In March 2008, Ziff Davis Media entered chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On March 26, 2009, Ziff Davis Media announced that FileFront site operations were to be indefinitely suspended on March 30, 2009. All of the Staff in Ziff Davis's FileFront division were made redundant at this time. Due to this, a massive undertaking by a large number of the former FileFront employees and network staff to back up all the downloads for the network sites (formerly known as the FilesNetwork) was started, spearheaded by one of the network administrators, Dominic 'Phenix' Black.
However, past March 30 and into April, the FileFront website appeared to continue working well, with no visible loss of hosted files. This led some people to believe that the announcement had been a poorly executed April Fools' joke. On April 2, 2009, the farewell message posted by Ziff Davis Media, was removed and replaced by a message from a consortium of former staff who had bought FileFront from Ziff Davis Media, informing users that FileFront had been bought from ZDM and saved from closure.
On February 11, 2010, Break Media acquired FileFront. On November 30, 2010, FileFront was renamed GameFront.
On January 28, 2015, it was announced that GameFront would no longer create editorial or video content. The file database on the site for PC gaming mods remains active.
On July 23, 2015, the GameFront FilesNetwork was taken offline and an announcement was posted explaining that due to long-standing issues with the system, as well as a lack of activity, the network was no longer to be operational.
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