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FileFront reacquired by original owners, not shutting down
FileFront announced its closure last week, and the gaming community mourned its loss. Mourn no more, however! The original owners of FileFront have reacquired it from Ziff Davis Media, and it will be reopening once more. The notice regarding the reopening states very clearly that this is not an April Fool's joke, nor was the original closure. The timing is suspect, but this absolutely was going to happen without their intervention.I don't know if all of the files have been saved with this change in ownership, but the service will be, at the very least. Will FileFront's founders do a better job keeping the site running? Only time will tell. For now, let's celebrate with all of the other gamers around the world. FileFront is back and hopefully it's here to stay.
FileFront rises from the grave
FileFront died ... and then it came back. We're pretty sure that makes it the world's first zombie file delivery site. Just a week ago, FileFront announced it was shutting down "due to the current economic conditions." Thankfully, some last-minute negotiations revived the site.The original founders of FileFront were able to buy back the site from the struggling Ziff Davis Media, restoring all suspended services. "We thank Ziff Davis Media for their cooperation and willingness to keep the site and community alive," the founders commented.Unfortunately, the announcement of FileFront's revival was made on April 1st, leading many to believe the site's restoration was simply a hoax. The site's statement reiterates three times that this news is real. We're glad to see FileFront is back -- it's always nice to see good news come out during these dire economic times.[Thanks PS36Wii Fanboy!]
FileFront suspending operations indefinitely
Our old friend Moo Money wrote in a little earlier today (along with a few readers) to alert us of some news that has the potential to hit the WoW community pretty hard: FileFront is closing its doors, citing poor economic conditions as the reason why they're indefinitely suspending the site's operations. As of March 30th, 2009, FileFront will be gone.Countless WoW videos are currently hosted on FileFront, including some of our favorite machinima, many that we've highlighted on the site previously. It's not just machinima, either. I know many of my friends that arena heavily find and host their videos on FileFront, and my raid has linked to strategy videos that were hosted there, too.
FileFront says 'farewell' ... and get your files while you can!
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]
WoW Machinima: The basics
(Dell is holding a machinima contest, which we'll discuss shortly. They asked me to write a tutorial to help new machinimators get their start.)Every day, I feature a video by some brave soul that dived in head first into the world of machinima. For those that aren't familiar with the term, it stands for machine and cinema. The literal definition is movies made in a 3D gaming platform. Using this basic guide, as well as the other tutorials and resources available to you, you'll be creating your first project in no time!Here is what you'll need if you want to make a machinima for free: WeGame camera - A free capturing program GIMP - A free image editing program Audacity - A free audio editing program Windows Movie Maker/iMovie - Free video editing programs that should have come with your appropriate system [Thanks for originally suggesting this, Bryan!] Read on for optional and advanced tools, plus additional resources ...
Activision Blizzard leads the gaming industry
Within the last week, articles on a couple different websites has given us a little look at how much of a juggernaut Activision Blizzard really is on the gaming front. The first comes from VentureBeat. Not directly about Activision Blizzard, this article talks a little about the current state of PC gaming. VentureBeat mentions that The NPD Group, a market researching group, has said that online gaming subscriptions generate around $1 billion per year with World of Warcraft leading the pack. I wouldn't use this as proof of PC gaming still going strong as VentureBeat does, but rather that the PC gaming community has shifted toward subscription based multiplayer experiences with consoles taking over single player experiences, for the most part. You can probably thank piracy for that. That bit is a topic for another time, though.Our other bit comes from Gaming Today on Filefront. This one is quite directly about Activision Blizzard, mentioning that they've become the number one game publisher around with a net earning of over $2.9 billion. That's a lot of money! Again according to The NPD Group, Activision dominated both the console and handheld markets. Between the Guitar Hero series still going strong and the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King, it won't be much of a surprise to anybody if Activision Blizzard comes out on top again in 2009.
Silverlode offers free commercial Saga accounts through FileFront
Saga is an MMORTS by Silverlode Interactive, where you can command literal legions of troops in never-ending battle. While it's free-to-play, there are two versions of the account: a $19.95 commercial version, and a free, features-locked version. Well, for those of you eager to give this a shot, Saga has just teamed up with FileFront to offer 50,000 commercial accounts. At nearly $20 per account, that's close to a million dollars' worth of players!Jaunt on over to FileFront to download the game and get your beta key. But don't forget to sign up on Saga's site for your free account first![Thanks, Will!]
Nihilum vs Brutallus video
The flag ship raiding guild Nihilum has released a great video of them taking on Brutallus, one of the new 25 man Sunwell Plateau bosses. The video is available from several sources, and the downloaded version is of quite high quality. The version provided above, a stream from File Front, is also pretty good.The video itself is taken from the standpoint of their main tank, Kungen, and runs for just over seven minutes. Most interesting is the additional pieces of information Nihilum provides about their raid setup. For guilds attempting him, looking at a successful raid composition can be a major piece of information. The raid setup Nihilum uses is:
Pirates of the Caribbean's Blackjack contest
As this post over at FileFront points out, you have until January 6th to try for an 8GB iPod Touch, one of which will be offered every day until the contest runs out. How can this be? Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online is offering an iPod Touch each day to the person who has won the most Blackjack games. To play, visit either King's Arm in Tortuga, or the Rowdy Rooster in Port Royal.Blackjack for an iPod? Isn't that gambling? Regardless, the 'Aces Need Faces' contest ends soon, so if you're feeling lucky, get on over there and start playing.
CGW archive launched, download first 100 issues free
Computer Gaming World has opened a digital archive that includes its first 100 issues, dating back to November 1981. Each issue is available for download in PDF format via FileFront -- for free. Go getcha hoard on!Keep in mind, the archive might not be online for long since Computer Gaming World will be transformed into Games for Windows: The Official Magazine starting with the December issue (released in mid-November).
