Xfire gaming history

In Yahoo filed a lawsuit against Xfire for breaching their patent "Game server for use in connection with a messenger server". And out of court settlement was reached in early Xfire features an instant messenger which can be used to send both text and audio messages to other Xfire users.

This can be accessed both outside of games, using the client, or in games, using an in-game display, eliminating the need to minimize the window to receive messages. Xfire uses Windows processes to detect when a player is playing any game supported by Xfire, and will record playing time. Certain other games feature more advanced stat tracking, which can be anything from servers the player is on, to kill counts and other gameplay stats.

Many games have the ability for screenshots to be taken in-game. The user can assign a key or combination of keys to use to take a screenshot from within the game. After the game the player can choose to upload any of these screenshots to their Xfire profile. The same can be done for recording video, much like the program Fraps. Another video feature although still in Alpha is the ability to do a live stream of the game you're playing, which other Xfire users can watch from the Xfire website.

Xfire also features a clan system, in which users can create clans for use on the Xfire service. The leaders can assign ranks to members, and keep track of how much their members are playing the games, as well have clan-only subforums. Kirmse: We kept innovating on the product, adding great features that people loved. We had one of the first in-game overlays. We added screenshot capturing, voice chat, video capturing and live streaming. We tracked game hours from the beginning; that was an incredibly popular feature now all the consoles and Steam do it, but I think we were the first, and it was essentially an afterthought.

Cassidy: We read the forums. We also got direct emails from people who had feature requests. We would have a weekly product feature prioritization meeting. It was kind of a fun, contentious meeting. Kirmse: We were one of the first Windows apps that had mandatory updates. It put a lot of pressure on us and the QA team.

We did releases between January of and August of That in-game technology was incredibly difficult and challenging. Cassidy: The biggest input — and a lot of this was Chris Kirmse — was to just listen to what people requested, and add that feature. Over time, the product kept getting better and better. Kirmse: Even though there were a lot of clones and copycats, no one else was able to come close to us during that time.

Most of the original Xfire team left shortly after the acquisition. Xfire remained a Viacom asset from to Kirmse: We had been working so hard for a couple of years. So when the acquisition came through, it was very exciting. MTV had tons of users — could they expose them to Xfire?

Kirmse: We were bought as part of a strategy of rolling up a bunch of game community companies. What ended up happening next was basically nothing all that great. Scott Wilson network operations engineer, via email : For many years after Viacom purchased Xfire, they seemed to have issues finding where to fit us within their company culture and figure out how to use Xfire for branding.

Cassidy: Inside Viacom, there were different groups. The monetization part was not smooth sailing, either. All of those game companies were essentially abandoned inside Viacom. Within a year or two, pretty much everyone left Xfire, except for the product development team. Cassidy: In the end, I missed the startup environment. Wilson: After a year or two, things began to change.

Kirmse: All of us ended up getting squeezed for resources. Wilson: Viacom imposed huge goals of revenue generation on us, which we could not meet, no matter what we did.

Kirmse: We were just trying to build a great product for gamers. Because we were all gamers, and we knew what we wanted. Wilson: One day, we were all told that Xfire was going to be offered up for sale. Within a week, someone from a huge gaming company showed up and began interviewing us. That process was a little nerve-racking, but there was one thing that was certain — they had a plan, and that excited us. But the deal fell through. Xfire is a leading entertainment outlet covering the latest gaming news as well as movies and TV.

Xfire also produces in-depth guides for your favorite games and thought provoking feature articles. Gazette Review. Share on Facebook. They did allow you to download all of that. Wow, a whole 2 days eh? Lucky you. The first I knew about it was 3 weeks ago. Most Read. Jan 14, PlayStation Blog recently posted the list of top downloads for the month of December.

But the page has added one more post for all Jan 13, Connect With Gazette.