GameFront shutting down
Mod-hosting site will be taken offline permanently on April 30; Mod DB begins effort to preserve hundreds of thousands of files
One of the mod community's largest hosting sites is going dark. GameFront is going offline permanently on April 30, taking with it a library of 328,000 mods, patches, tools, and more.
"Since our founding as FileLeech almost 20 years ago, we have always strived to offer the best file hosting alongside quality gaming content," GameFront's Ron Whitaker said in announcing the news. "To all of our fans who have supported us throughout the years, we thank you for making us your destination for gaming files. Despite name changes, ownership changes, and staff changes, you have always made our jobs rewarding and fun."
While GameFront's library of files will be inaccessible after this month, there are efforts to preserve its catalog in the two weeks the site has left. Fellow hosting site Mod DB has asked users to submit any games, add-ons, or mods that are exclusively on GameFront to its own servers before the site goes dark.
"We are very worried that many amazing mods and add-ons shared only on GameFront will be lost in two weeks' time after the closure," Mod DB's Patrick Sotiriou said in a post detailing the archival effort. "So we are calling on our entire community to help us preserve these files and make them available forever."
The end of GameFront is the latest in a series of moves that has seen parent company Defy Media reduce its investment in gaming websites. Amid layoffs to all of Defy's major gaming sites last year, GameFront stopped producing original editorial content. In February, Defy shut down GameTrailers, and just last month laid off staff at The Escapist as it closed the site's main offices in Durham, North Carolina.