Xfire
| Xfire Gamer Messenger
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| Basic data
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| developer | Xfire team |
| Current version | 1.155 (latest version) (March 21, 2013) |
| operating system | Windows , Mac OS (iFire, unofficial), iOS , Android |
| category | Instant messaging |
| License | Proprietary |
| German speaking | Yes |
| de.xfire.com | |
Xfire was a free instant messaging - service for communication between computer gamers via the Internet . The program used a proprietary network protocol . The Xfire client was discontinued on June 12, 2015. As a special unique selling point, the program has the ability to determine the games currently open by the player and to display them to the contacts in order to be able to send instant messages to other friends in-game . The Messenger was originally only available for Windows , but there are now unofficial versions for Mac OS , iOS (Xblaze) and Android (XFMobile). In addition, open source plug-ins are available for Pidgin , Miranda IM , Miranda NG , Adium and Trillian .
technology
By analyzing running processes , Xfire can determine the active game and send this information to the Xfire server. Additional metadata is transmitted, for example the game server currently in use , the level, the map and the number of players. Xfire can then make this information visible to other users in its own contact list or to all users so that a friend can join the respective server.
This made the long-standing practice of copy'n'paste and exchanging server information between the players superfluous.
The program supports instant connection to a game server for many games. This means that contacts can join a server directly. Xfire allows users to post messages from other messenger services - for example Steam - directly into the game, as it is an independent application.
Xfire shows, among other things, how many hours you have played which games. You can also create screenshots (standard combination “ Scroll key + S”) and videos in the game, which can be published on the Xfire profile page.
An additional option is to stream on certain platforms, such as Twitch .
Another feature of Xfire is the download section. You can subscribe to so-called channels for any topic (e.g. "eSports Movies", "WOW Movies", "First Person Shooters Trailers") in which films on the respective topic that were added by moderators are automatically downloaded . In addition to the automatic channels, you can also download files from a database of movies, trailers, demos etc. via Xfire.
Updates are also downloaded automatically for some games. The loading process itself can be compared with BitTorrent or a file sharing network (see P2P ). While a file is initially “seeded” (i.e. distributed) by the Xfire servers, all downloaders become servers themselves and contribute to the rather high data transfer speed in the Xfire network. The download upload limit can be preset depending on your own status ( playing , on the PC and absent ).
Xfire supports over 3500 games and over 200 that can be operated through the Xfire client. These supported games are from a wide variety of genres and include popular games such as parts of the Counter-Strike , the full Call-of-Duty , and the Battlefield series, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars - but also lesser-known games such as the open source -Game Warsow .
history
Xfire was developed in early 2004. Since then, over 24 million users have registered.
With version 1.43 in August 2005, Xfire Inc. introduced a beta voice chat via VoIP similar to (among others) TeamSpeak . File transfer was also added via an update. Since January 2008 it is now also possible to make video recordings of the running game and either make them available to other players on the Xfire website, similar to YouTube , or allow friends to follow the action live via stream .
Due to a very long outage of the "Steam Friends" messenger, with which one could chat within the games supported by Steam , Xfire was often used as a replacement and was thus able to achieve a higher degree of distribution.
End of April 2006 Xfire to Viacom for 102 million US dollars sold. It is hoped that this will further expand the online community.
The protocol was partially documented and implemented by gfire , an open source plugin for Pidgin .
With XfirePlus, small plug-ins have been added to Xfire since November 2006, which among other things show other players what music they are currently listening to on the PC, but for some time now XFire itself has offered the possibility of receiving current title information from the most popular media players such as iTunes , Windows Media Player or Winamp to take over. More are to follow, with the long-term goal that the user no longer needs to have Teamspeak, ICQ, MSN, AIM etc. running in parallel, since Xfire is compatible with all of these.
XFire currently supports many of them, such as AIM (and thus ICQ), Windows Live Messaging Service (MSN), Yahoo Messenger ( Y! M ) and also offers integrated VoIP integration.
On August 2, 2010, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming. In the evening the following message was sent to all users: “Xfire was bought by new owners today. Most of the team that has built Xfire over the last six years is leaving. We enjoyed working for you for the last 127 releases and wish we could stay to create the next 127. Good bye, good luck, and game on. --- The Xfire Team ".
On June 12, 2015, the Xfire client and website were discontinued. The reason for this is the future focus on the Xfire Tournament Platform .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Goodbye message for the Xfire client setting . Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
Web links
- * Plugin for Miranda IM ( Memento from November 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- Plugin for Miranda NG