filefront posts

A popular gaming download site that last year was on the verge of shutting down entirely has just been bought by new owners. FileFront.com has been acquired by Break Media which owns a number of entertainment-based web sites. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

First launched in 2001, FileFront.com was later bought out by Ziff Davis. Last March it was announced that the site would be closed by the company as part of Ziff Davis' exit from the gaming media business . At the last minute, however, the site was purchased by its original owners and continued to offer gaming related downloads. Break Media states they plan to "update the site's design, refocus and expand the site's editorial content, and continue to build out the FileFront community."

Remember last week when the file download site FileFront would be shutting down this week? Yeah . . . about that. As it turns out the site has been saved at the last minute and will stay in operation. No, a huge company didn't swoop in to buy it out. As is turns out the site was saved by its original founders.

In a message on the site from the (unnamed) founding team, they announce that they have bought the site back from Ziff Davis who were going to shut it down due to "current economic conditions".Specific financial terms were not disclosed. The message states, "We look forward to improving FileFront and serving the gaming community for years to come."

Ziff Davis' final vestige of its game business is about to close its doors. FileFront, the popular game file download web site, has posted up word that it will shut down operations as of March 30. In a farewell message, the site blamed the "current economic conditions" as the reason for their shutdown.

Just a few years ago, Ziff Davis was one of the biggest companies in the US in terms of covering the game industry with several print magazines along with their 1Up.com game web site network. However the company hit a number of financial issues even before the current recession began and it declared bankruptcy in early 2008. It began shutting down its game magazines at first. In early January, Ziff Davis sold most of its 1Up.com web sites to the Hearst Corporation and its UGO subsidiary. FileFront, however, was not part of the UGO sale. It was kept by Ziff Davis with an internal memo saying the company "will determine the best ways to leverage the scale and functionality of this digital property to expand our business position." Apparently they were not able to do what they had planned.