Xfire is an instant messenger, voice chat, and clan/group system that is currently owned by Titan Gaming. Xfire is the ultimate all-in-one system for clan/group-based gaming when you have no budget (all of Xfire’s features are free). It allows you to create a group, invite people to the group, then it tracks your group’s hours played and lets you make a calendar, a forum, an announcements page, and a description all from your own page on Xfire.com.
Instant Messenger/Voice chat
Xfire’s instant messenger has all the standard IM features, but no offline message system. It has compatibility for AIM, MSN, and Twitter connectivity, which is pretty impressing. It’s voice chat is of lower quality than Skype and Mumble, but higher than Steam, TeamSpeak, and Ventrilo. It has support for group chats with up to 50 people.
Game Selection and Sales
Xfire was not originally made to be a platform for selling games, but when Viacom/MTV bought it they tried very hard to sell a few games, but got almost no sales, so they sold it to Titan Gaming. Titan wants to make Xfire more of a platform for selling games, like Steam, but for now they haven’t changed anything (just a note, it looks like Titan will be very indie friendly). With this all being said, at the moment of this post, games on Xfire are all sold for retail price, but the Xfire community heavily embraces free to play games, many of which you can download via Xfire.
Community
The people on Xfire are very fun and exciting. There are always trolls in every community, but even they get hyped up when an event is being planned by the Xfire team. There are often prize events in free to play games for players or groups that play so many hours, as well as live interviews with developers. The forums are always heavily used.
Group are everywhere on Xfire, and starting one is easy. Once you get one friend, there is a friends-of-friends list on your IM list, where you can add friends of friends, then once you add them you can add even more, and you can invite them all to your group. Groups on Xfire aren’t very professional due to the lowest average age (14 seems to be average) I’ve seen on any gaming platform, but they are fun.
Overlay
Xfire’s overlay is simply amazing. With it you can:
- Take screenshots
- Take in-game video
- Message others
- See your FPS
- Browse the internet
- Use voice chat like you would out of game
- Control your media player
- Server browser
- Game Laucher
and probably even more that I don’t know about. All videos and screenshots can be uploaded to Xfire and displayed on your group’s homepage.
Overall Quality
Xfire is a no-budget group’s dream. It has everything a gaming group needs to communicate, function and have fun. It’s overlay allows for in-game group conversations and calls, as well as a way to record your finest moments and show them to your friends. Of course, Xfire’s downfall is that if you use a third part website, voicechat, or forum the point of having Xfire is halfway removed, and that in its near future it will be heavily monotized. Hopefully Titan Gaming knows what they are doing and gives us a ton of cheap games instead of Xfire’s current list of a few expensive games.
You can get Xfire at http://www.xfire.com/
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