Posted on May 3, 2012, Ross Lincoln BREAKING: IGN To Close FilePlanet (UPDATED)
Veteran file hosting site FilePlanet is being shuttered by parent site IGN, after a nearly 13 year run. Though it was quietly announced in April 2012 that Fileplanet would be archived, it remained unclear whether the site would continue to offer services. We reached out to IGN for comment, and today they have confirmed that the site will eventually be taken down.
“We have decided to archive FilePlanet and will eventually stop operating the site,” IGN publisher Peer Schneider told Game Front. “A lot of things have changed over the last decade. A standalone site for downloads of videos, demos, or patches made perfect sense back then, but content delivery is much more integrated now. We believe that the idea of a single-purpose PC download site like FilePlanet is one that, unfortunately, has passed. We decided to deemphasize the site last year and double down on other opportunities. We’ll of course continue to run our beta program and game giveaways through IGN and GameSpy – and we’re thinking of ways to continue to help support the modding communities as well.”
One of the first big file hosting sites during the waning days of Web 1.0 (along with FileLeech, now Game Front), Fileplanet was launched on May 6, 1999 by Gamespy, primarily to serve the then-rampant Quake 2 community; IGN Purchased Gamespy in 2004 and managed the site through several redesigns. Near the end of April, 2012, a banner was added along the top of the Fileplanet homepage hinting at the decision to close it down: “Note: FilePlanet is no longer being updated and is in the process of being archived.”
Though this has got to be a serious inconvenience for those who have long stored their files on FilePlanet, we at Game Front are happy to confirm that we do and will continue to host hundreds of thousands of patches, demos and yes, mods. Registration is free.
Our thoughts naturally go out to the FilePlanet staff who might be losing their jobs in the wake of this decision. Knowing how tough the economic climate is, we sincerely wish them all the best of luck.
***Updated***
Game Front reached out to IGN for additional comment on the closing of FilePlanet, specifically regarding the eventual fate of files stored on the site, and of the employees assigned to run it. IGN states that mass layoffs are not going to ensue. “Everyone who worked at FilePlanet is now working on other projects,” they said, “or left the company earlier this year.” That’s great news, and honestly, is nice to know considering how rough it is out there. But what happens to the files when they stop operating the site? “While the site will no longer be updated,” IGN told us, “for now users can still use the site as a repository of file content. If/when we remove all site content completely, we’ll be sure to communicate that to users before it happens.”