It's been a busy day for news and it's been capped by the surprise announcement of the acquisition of a well known game news and file site. Shacknews has announced that it has been bought by the console game rental service Gamefly. The deal also includes the Fileshack file download site. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.

Shacknews was launched in 1995 by Dallas-based Steve Gibson and was at first just a fan site called sCary's Quakeholio. It was originally launched as a site devoted mostly to coverage of id Software's FPS Quake. The name of the site later changed to Shugashack before setting on its current title. It also slowly expanded its news coverage to include the entire game industry. The company launched their Fileshack service in 2002.

Shacknews' announcement of the Gamefly acquisition added that the deal was not made because Shacknews was dealing with any financial problems. Gibson is quoted as saying it would allow the site to have "much needed resources to expand into new and exciting areas that would not otherwise be possible." Gamefly co-founder Sean Spector pledged not to "turn the site into something else," adding, "We purchased Shacknews because it's a great site."

Update: In an article on Forbes.com on the new Shacknews-Gamefly deal it was revealed that Gibson will actually be leaving Shacknews. Gibson was not interviewed for the article and there's no word on what he will be doing next. Another co-founder, Maarten Goldstein, will remain on the site "for at least the short term." but that the rest of the editorial team will remain. The article speculates that Gamefly might have purchased Shacknews and Fileshack to look to the future where they might enter the digital download business but Gamefly exec Sean Spector dismissed this, saying, "...there's a large need for quality content. Shacknews fills that need, delivering great news and features and a vibrant community. We can leverage a lot of things we have internally, like our infrastructure and resources, and help expand it."