Sources connected to Internet Service Provider TPG have told Stevivor the company is looking to close Australian games site Games.on.net as well as make sweeping changes to the popular iiNet Freezone scheme for game content.
The sources have confirmed fears voiced by users of both Whirlpool and Games.on.net forums, who’ve noticed that Games.on.net’s main page hasn’t been amended since 28 October. While some forum users have noted that staff may be busy due to PAX AUS this past weekend, most are correctly taking it as a death knell for the popular site.
Moreover, our sources have said that as part of the same restructuring, TPG is considering the termination of the iiNet Freezone scheme for game content. Freezone currently allows for unmeasured downloads of Xbox.com content on consoles and Steam downloads on iiNet-hosted servers, putting that content outside of normal quotas.
iiNet has recently changed its most popular internet plans, bumping them up to include 1TB of anytime data. For instance, iiNet’s $69.95 AUD Naked ADSL2+ plan went from 300GB to 1TB for no additional cost. While unconfirmed, these plan changes may have been made with the termination of the game-centric Freezone in mind.
Games.on.net has this type of strife before, yet has managed to survive. Created in 2002 by ISP Internode, Games.on.net was almost closed as part of Internode’s aquisition by rival iiNet. iiNet was acquired by TPG earlier this year.
We’re awaiting comment from TPG.
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