Before the end of its first year the site amassed thousands of members, and this number continued to increase until a surprise message was posted by the site’s owners yesterday.

After three years it’s Game Over for GazelleGames. The decision to close the site comes a few days after the closure of Underground Gamer, another popular gaming tracker. While the exact details of the closures remain unknown to the outside world, both trackers have mentioned legal threats as motivation.

In a goodbye notice posted on the site’s frontage, GazelleGames says it wants to protect staff and users from running into trouble with the law. The site also assures its members that all personal information will be wiped.

“GazelleGames will be closing its doors. This came as a surprise to all the staff team, but it’s a move not unexpected. In light of UG’s closing five months after BG, it seemed like a prudent move to keep any legal actions from being taken upon anyone.

“So yes, it’s a precautionary measure taken in reaction to the recent movements in the torrent world. All of your contact data such as IP addresses and emails will be wiped along with the server itself.”

Unlike Underground Gamer, the shutdown of GazelleGames is said to be permanent. Underground Gamer is leaving the door open for a comeback but notes that all non-essential data was wiped out to protect staff and members, a fact relayed to TorrentFreak when we spoke with a tech admin at the site.

Counting in bitGAMER, this is the third large gaming tracker to shut down in a matter of months. While it’s unclear which industry group is behind the legal pressure, there have been some rumors that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is involved.

In an IRC chat Underground Gamer’s Lenk mentioned that there were complaints regarding games from major publishers, including FIFA 98. However, the threats came from a “watchdog,” not EA or any of the other game makers themselves.

“That’s what you get when you have organizations whose sole purpose is scoring points by taking down sites. They don’t care about what they take down. They just do what they are paid for,” Lenk wrote.

“Companies don’t care about UG. Copyright watchdogs make it their job though,” he added.

Whoever is behind the pressure, it appears to be serious enough for the two trackers to cease their operations. The question remains whether the shutdowns will stop people from sharing games.

There are already talks to re-spawn the fallen communities at new BitTorrent trackers, as is often the case when large sites die. Other members will simply resume their sharing habits at one of the trackers that are still in the game.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

What started out as a sister site of the Underground Gamer tracker turned into a serious player on its own, amassing 65,000 members over the years.

However, at the start of 2013 the site’s founders have decided to quit the game for good, leaving a large and active community behind. In a statement posted on the site’s homepage they explain that they are ready to move on to new things.

“We’ve reached the end of the ride. bitGAMER has been an amazingly fun ride, but all rides must come to an end,” the notice starts, also mentioning the “legal climate” as a factor to pull the plug.

“You all know that the legal climate has changed over the years, so we won’t bore you with that stuff. More importantly, the founders are simply ready to move on with their lives.”

The news caused some confusion among the site’s members as it came without prior warning. This also led to the inevitable rumors that there is something more to the shutdown, but the site’s founders explained in a follow up statement that this is certainly not the case.

“We didn’t give advance warning due to the nature of the site. We don’t want to give any advance notice in case someone was ready to kick someone’s door in at the last minute,” read a message posted in the IRC channel.

The founders further say that those who donated to the site in the last month can ask for a refund.

In an attempt to save the community the bitGAMER staff explored whether it was possible to hand over the reigns to new owners. However, they decided not to do so as that would require sharing details on all its members with a relatively unknown third-party.

“We tried to find new, trusted owners to carry the torch, but after years of attempts fell though, we had no choice but to close down the site. We wouldn’t be willing to transfer sensitive database data to a third-party that we’re not well acquainted with,” the founders explain.

But that doesn’t mean the tens of thousands of members will stop sharing.

There are already suggestions of re-spawning the bitGAMER community at new BitTorrent tracker, as is often the case when a large site dies. Other members will simply resume their game-sharing habits elsewhere. Invites for other private BitTorrent trackers are being shared by the dozens behind the scenes.

But for bitGAMER it’s Game Over.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.