Xfire
Encyclopedia
Xfire is a proprietary freeware
instant messaging
service for gamer
s, that also serves as a game server browser
and has various other feature
s. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows
. Xfire was originally developed
by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California
. Xfire currently has over 20 million registered users, with frequently over 100,000 users online.
Xfire's Livestream
(formerly known as Mogulus) allows users to broadcast live video streams of their current game to an audience. The website's Top 10 games has viewed World of Warcraft
at the 1st place for many years but was recently surpassed by League of Legends
on June 20, 2011.
(former Chief Gaming Officer; former U.S. Champion of Quake), Mike Cassidy
(former CEO), Max Woon (former CTO) and David Lawee
(former COO). The company was formerly known as Ultimate Arena but changed its name to Xfire when its desktop client Xfire became more popular and successful than its gaming website.
Xfire, the desktop client code-named Scoville, was first developed in 2003 by Garrett Blythe, Chris Kirmse (current General Manager), Mike Judge, and others. The full credits can be found in About under the Help menu in the desktop client.
On April 25, 2006, Xfire was acquired by Viacom
in a US$102 million deal.
In September 2006, Sony was misinterpreted to have announced that Xfire would be used for the PlayStation 3
. What they actually meant was that only one PS3 game, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
, was to use some of the features with more game support planned for the future.
On May 7, 2007, Xfire announced they have over 7 million registered users.
On June 13, 2007, Mike Cassidy (former CEO, co-founder) departed the company to work for venture capital firm Benchmark Capital
. Adam Boyden (VP of Business Development & Marketing) was assigned to take his place and manage the company for a temporary period.
On August 2, 2010, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming. At 22:16 GMT, the following message was broadcast to Xfire 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". A few minutes later the Xfire website displayed a message stating it was temporarily taken offline. When it came back a few minutes later, the news column on the left had the following content: "August 2, 2010—Xfire has been purchased by another company. Most of the team that has brought you Xfire for the last 6 years is leaving, including me. We've enjoyed our time and I personally am sad that I was only able to do 127 releases. Good bye and game on! - Chris". It was soon replaced with this message: "August 2, 2010--Titan Gaming Acquires Xfire Titan will be taking on the Xfire name, with a focus towards ongoing innovation in the gaming space. The Xfire services will continue uninterrupted for its users. Xfire redefined how gamers communicate, Titan intends to build upon this tradition and utilize the Xfire platform to help gaming companies better engage their users. We look forward to continuing and expanding upon the Xfire service. --- Raincrow"
filed a lawsuit
against Xfire, Inc. on January 28, 2005, claiming Xfire has infringed
Yahoo!'s U.S. patent
No. 6,699,125, for a "Game server for use in connection with a messenger server". Xfire, Inc. filed a countersuit against Yahoo! on March 10, 2005. The countersuit was eventually disqualified by the judge. There has been a settlement between the companies as of January 31, 2006. More details were posted to Xfire's forums, though terms were not disclosed.
, Xfire can detect active games and send that information to Xfire clients
with the current player
as a friend. For many games, it can also detect which server
people are playing on, the level
which is running and ping
times. Some games may be joined instantly. Xfire logs what games users are playing, how many hours they have played them, and saves other information (such as scores) from game servers. This information can be converted into a PNG image
by the server via PHP
for every user to use as a signature
.
. Users can also send in-game messages to other players without joining the game and are also able to see what games their friends are playing. When a user is not playing a game and wish to join a friend who is, Xfire can launch the game and join the friend's server automatically.
and Windows Live Messenger
plugin. Currently, it only supports chatting, and none of AIM's other features. As of December 1, 2009, users could now access their Twitter
accounts through Xfire. They could view updates posted by other users, as well as post their own. Recently Google Talk was added.
voice chat
feature using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Until early 2009, if Voice Chat was being used in a chat room, users had to host the voice chat, making quality a problem. Some users have better system capabilities than others; therefore, voice quality and lag
would be a problem. Xfire now hosts the voice chat sessions in high-quality—they call this addition "Xfire Pro-Voice."
s in game and save them to a specified folder, though this only works with Xfire In-Game-supported games, unlike Fraps
. A user can take as many in-game screen shots as they want. Once the user exits their game, Xfire will load all of their screenshots in a window. The user can then select all of the screen shots that they want to upload to their Xfire profile page. Users can also give each screenshot a caption.
Xfire has the ability to record video in-game
. However, it can have a significant impact on game performance and recording quality; if one has a low-performance system and starts recording, the frame rate
will slow dramatically. This is typically true of all video recording during gaming, and not unique to Xfire.
(SDK) was released with version 1.56 (May 2006). It offers game developers an interface to expose some of the game data to the Xfire application. This is not compatible with some games, just like the Screenshot feature.
and Mozilla Firefox
. In version 1.113, released on August 17, 2009, the broadcast system changed partner and allowed a plugin-less Flash-based view compatible with any Flash-enabled browser, including Apple Safari on Mac OS X
. It lets anyone watch a live feed of a user's screen while they are playing a game. When a user begins a stream, it opens up a chatroom which anyone who is watching a live feed can join.
.
Support for Windows 98
and Windows Me
was discontinued as of January 2007.
contests.
and image files. Infoviews are made using HTML
, JavaScript
, and images.
or SDK
for developing third-party plugins makes development and availability of plugins difficult.
Programs such as the Music plugin allow displaying information about music as it plays. The Xfire Web Messenger allows chatting with Xfire friends anywhere in the world, from any Java-supporting operating system
.
clients.
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
service for gamer
Gamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
s, that also serves as a game server browser
Game server browser
A game server browser, or game scanner, is an application enabling users to locate online multiplayer servers for various compatible PC games...
and has various other feature
Feature (software design)
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defines the term feature in IEEE 829 as "A distinguishing characteristic of a software item ." - Feature-rich :...
s. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. Xfire was originally developed
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
by Ultimate Arena based in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
. Xfire currently has over 20 million registered users, with frequently over 100,000 users online.
Xfire's Livestream
Livestream
Livestream, formerly known as Mogulus, is a live streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet...
(formerly known as Mogulus) allows users to broadcast live video streams of their current game to an audience. The website's Top 10 games has viewed World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
at the 1st place for many years but was recently surpassed by League of Legends
League of Legends
The BetFred League of Legends was a darts tournament featuring some of the legends of the game of darts which commenced in May 2008. The tournament is broadcast on Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom....
on June 20, 2011.
History
Xfire, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Dennis "Thresh" FongDennis Fong
Dennis "Thresh" Fong is an entrepreneur and retired celebrity pro gamer. Fong has been called "the Michael Jordan of video games", a "Top 20 Entrepreneur Under 35" by Red Herring magazine, and voted as the "Top North American E-Sports Figure of All Time" by the E-Sports Entertainment Association,...
(former Chief Gaming Officer; former U.S. Champion of Quake), Mike Cassidy
Mike Cassidy (entrepreneur)
Mike Cassidy is an entrepreneur, and was CEO and co-founder of four previous Internet start-ups: Stylus Innovation, Direct Hit, Xfire, and Ruba...
(former CEO), Max Woon (former CTO) and David Lawee
David Lawee
David Lawee is a Canadian born entrepreneur. He earned a philosophy degree at the University of Western Ontario, a law degree at McGill University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business....
(former COO). The company was formerly known as Ultimate Arena but changed its name to Xfire when its desktop client Xfire became more popular and successful than its gaming website.
Xfire, the desktop client code-named Scoville, was first developed in 2003 by Garrett Blythe, Chris Kirmse (current General Manager), Mike Judge, and others. The full credits can be found in About under the Help menu in the desktop client.
On April 25, 2006, Xfire was acquired by Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
in a US$102 million deal.
In September 2006, Sony was misinterpreted to have announced that Xfire would be used for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. What they actually meant was that only one PS3 game, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom
Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom is a video game for the PlayStation 3 system, released on November 19, 2006. The game was a PS3 launch title and is a hack and slash with RPG elements...
, was to use some of the features with more game support planned for the future.
On May 7, 2007, Xfire announced they have over 7 million registered users.
On June 13, 2007, Mike Cassidy (former CEO, co-founder) departed the company to work for venture capital firm Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups. In 1997, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999. Other high-profile investments include Ariba, Juniper Networks, Red...
. Adam Boyden (VP of Business Development & Marketing) was assigned to take his place and manage the company for a temporary period.
On August 2, 2010, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming. At 22:16 GMT, the following message was broadcast to Xfire 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". A few minutes later the Xfire website displayed a message stating it was temporarily taken offline. When it came back a few minutes later, the news column on the left had the following content: "August 2, 2010—Xfire has been purchased by another company. Most of the team that has brought you Xfire for the last 6 years is leaving, including me. We've enjoyed our time and I personally am sad that I was only able to do 127 releases. Good bye and game on! - Chris". It was soon replaced with this message: "August 2, 2010--Titan Gaming Acquires Xfire Titan will be taking on the Xfire name, with a focus towards ongoing innovation in the gaming space. The Xfire services will continue uninterrupted for its users. Xfire redefined how gamers communicate, Titan intends to build upon this tradition and utilize the Xfire platform to help gaming companies better engage their users. We look forward to continuing and expanding upon the Xfire service. --- Raincrow"
Lawsuits
Yahoo!Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
filed a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against Xfire, Inc. on January 28, 2005, claiming Xfire has infringed
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
Yahoo!'s U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
No. 6,699,125, for a "Game server for use in connection with a messenger server". Xfire, Inc. filed a countersuit against Yahoo! on March 10, 2005. The countersuit was eventually disqualified by the judge. There has been a settlement between the companies as of January 31, 2006. More details were posted to Xfire's forums, though terms were not disclosed.
Features
Xfire has many features, the majority of which can only be used in game. Its features include:Game detection
Xfire features the ability to detect the video game a particular contact is running. By analyzing running processesProcess (computing)
In computing, a process is an instance of a computer program that is being executed. It contains the program code and its current activity. Depending on the operating system , a process may be made up of multiple threads of execution that execute instructions concurrently.A computer program is a...
, Xfire can detect active games and send that information to Xfire clients
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
with the current player
Player (game)
A player of a game is a participant therein. The term 'player' is used with this same meaning both in game theory and in ordinary recreational games....
as a friend. For many games, it can also detect which server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
people are playing on, the level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
which is running and ping
Ping
Ping is a computer network administration utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol network and to measure the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer...
times. Some games may be joined instantly. Xfire logs what games users are playing, how many hours they have played them, and saves other information (such as scores) from game servers. This information can be converted into a PNG image
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
by the server via PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
for every user to use as a signature
Signature block
A signature block is a block of text automatically appended at the bottom of an e-mail message, Usenet article, or forum post. This has the effect of "signing off" the message and in a reply message of indicating that no more response follows...
.
Instant messages
Xfire is most notable for its ability to send and receive instant messages from inside a game in fullscreen mode, eliminating the need to minimize the game windowWindow (computing)
In computing, a window is a visual area containing some kind of user interface. It usually has a rectangular shape that can overlap with the area of other windows...
. Users can also send in-game messages to other players without joining the game and are also able to see what games their friends are playing. When a user is not playing a game and wish to join a friend who is, Xfire can launch the game and join the friend's server automatically.
Multiprotocol support
As of release 1.108 on May 4, 2009, there is a built-in alpha AOL Instant MessengerAOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
and Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...
plugin. Currently, it only supports chatting, and none of AIM's other features. As of December 1, 2009, users could now access their Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
accounts through Xfire. They could view updates posted by other users, as well as post their own. Recently Google Talk was added.
Voice chat
With version 1.43, released August 2005, Xfire, Inc. added a betaDevelopment stage
A software release life cycle refers to the phases of development and maturity for a piece of computer software—ranging from its initial development, to its eventual release, and updated versions of the released version to help improve software or fix bugs still present in the software.- Pre-alpha...
voice chat
Voice chat
Voice chat is a modern form of communication used on the Internet. The means of communicating with voice chat is through any of the messengers, mainly Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, inSpeak Communicator or Windows Live Messenger...
feature using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. Until early 2009, if Voice Chat was being used in a chat room, users had to host the voice chat, making quality a problem. Some users have better system capabilities than others; therefore, voice quality and lag
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
would be a problem. Xfire now hosts the voice chat sessions in high-quality—they call this addition "Xfire Pro-Voice."
Screenshots and video recordings
Xfire has the ability to take screenshotScreenshot
A screenshot , screen capture , screen dump, screengrab , or print screen is an image taken by a computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device...
s in game and save them to a specified folder, though this only works with Xfire In-Game-supported games, unlike Fraps
Fraps
Fraps is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. It is commonly used to determine a computer's performance with a game, as well as record gaming footage...
. A user can take as many in-game screen shots as they want. Once the user exits their game, Xfire will load all of their screenshots in a window. The user can then select all of the screen shots that they want to upload to their Xfire profile page. Users can also give each screenshot a caption.
Xfire has the ability to record video in-game
Screencast
A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot; whereas screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the...
. However, it can have a significant impact on game performance and recording quality; if one has a low-performance system and starts recording, the frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
will slow dramatically. This is typically true of all video recording during gaming, and not unique to Xfire.
SDK
The Xfire Game software development kitSoftware development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
(SDK) was released with version 1.56 (May 2006). It offers game developers an interface to expose some of the game data to the Xfire application. This is not compatible with some games, just like the Screenshot feature.
Clan and guild system
In version 1.63, Xfire released a beta clan system. This allowed users to create clans or guilds on the Xfire website and invite members (recruits can also ask to join). Many other features were also associated with this such as setting up ranks, favorite games and the number of hours everyone has been playing. With version 1.85, the Clans & Guilds system was officially released.Live video: broadcasting
Xfire added a video streaming feature in version 1.97. A broadcast was required to be viewed using a web browser plugin, supporting only Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
and Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
. In version 1.113, released on August 17, 2009, the broadcast system changed partner and allowed a plugin-less Flash-based view compatible with any Flash-enabled browser, including Apple Safari on Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. It lets anyone watch a live feed of a user's screen while they are playing a game. When a user begins a stream, it opens up a chatroom which anyone who is watching a live feed can join.
In-game Web browsing
In-game internet browsing capabilities were added to Xfire in version 1.103. Its homepage is set as a statistics page of the game being played: Clans and Guilds based around the game, current users playing, peak position (when it was the most popular game on the Xfire board) etc.Support
As of 21 December, Xfire provided feature support for more than 2,000 games, of many different genresComputer and video game genres
Video game genres are used to categorize video games based on their gameplay interaction rather than visual or narrative differences. A video game genre is defined by a set of gameplay challenges. They are classified independent of their setting or game-world content, unlike other works of fiction...
.
Support for Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
and Windows Me
Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
was discontinued as of January 2007.
Xfire events
Xfire hosts events every month ranging from chat sessions with the program's developers or game developers, debates, game tournaments and machinimaMachinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
contests.
Third-party modifications and Software Forking
There are many third party modifications for Xfire's client and services, including skins, infoview templates, plugins, and protocol implementations. Some of these may or may not violate Xfire's Terms of Service, according to paragraph 6.Skins, infoviews
Skins can be used to provide a new look to the Xfire client and chat windows, and Infoview skins can be used to provide extra functionality in the infoview pane. Skins are made using XMLXML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
and image files. Infoviews are made using HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
, JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
, and images.
Plugins
Xfire's lack of an APIApplication programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
or SDK
Software development kit
A software development kit is typically a set of software development tools that allows for the creation of applications for a certain software package, software framework, hardware platform, computer system, video game console, operating system, or similar platform.It may be something as simple...
for developing third-party plugins makes development and availability of plugins difficult.
- Xfire Plus (home page), a set of extension programs and files to enhance the Xfire client. It was discontinued when the Xfire client received official support for all of its features.
Programs such as the Music plugin allow displaying information about music as it plays. The Xfire Web Messenger allows chatting with Xfire friends anywhere in the world, from any Java-supporting operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
.
- Xfire Music Plugin (plugin page), a public domainPublic domainWorks are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
standalone plugin for Windows Media PlayerWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
on 32-bit32-bitThe range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
operating systems that sets the user's status to a customizable string based on the media they are currently playing. The source is provided with the plugin and Wi-Fi. - Xfire2Phone, a plugin that needs VirtualAudioCable and Gmail to set up a link to any phone in the US for free. Lets users connect to voice chat simply via landline or mobile phone.
Open source protocol libraries
These libraries offer developers a way to write software to access the Xfire network, without having to write supporting code to handle the protocol, from scratch.- OpenFire, an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
(LGPLGNU Lesser General Public LicenseThe GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
licensed) Java and suite of tools to access the Xfire instant messaging network.
- xfirelib, an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
library written in C++ which implements the Xfire protocol. Based on it is an Extensible Messaging and Presence ProtocolExtensible Messaging and Presence ProtocolExtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is an open-standard communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML . The protocol was originally named Jabber, and was developed by the Jabber open-source community in 1999 for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging , presence...
(XMPP) gateway to Xfire (XFireGateway) which also implements Gamers Own Instant Messenger (GOIMGOIMGOIM , is a free software instant messaging client based on the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. It uses the XMPP protocol for communication with an extended presence packet to transmit information about games a user is currently playing.Although GOIM runs on all platforms supported by Java and...
) extensions to the XMPP protocol.
Multi-protocol messenger plugins
The following plugins let users chat on Xfire with other instant messagingInstant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
clients.
- Gfire (home page), a PidginPidgin (software)Pidgin is an open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple. Libpurple has support for many commonly used instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to log into various services from one application.The number of Pidgin users was estimated to be over 3...
plugin which lets users chat and see what games friends are playing. It supports LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Windows. It has most of the major Xfire features: group chat, clan chat, file transfer, avatars, server, and game detection. - KopeteKopeteKopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE desktop environment...
plugin (plugin page), lets users chat and see the status of friends. - Miranda IMMiranda IMMiranda IM is an open source multiprotocol instant messaging application, designed for Microsoft Windows. Miranda is free software distributed under GNU General Public License.- Architecture :...
plugin (plugin page), chat with others on Xfire, game detection and much more. - TrillianTrillian (instant messaging client)Trillian is a proprietary multiprotocol instant messaging application for Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and the Web, created by Cerulean Studios...
plugin (plugin page), lets users chat and see the status of friends; also detects games when users run them. As of 2010, the plugin does not work, due to protocol changes. - Xblaze (home page), an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
plugin for AdiumAdiumAdium is a free and open source instant messaging client for Mac OS X that supports multiple IM networks, including Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and XMPP. It supports many protocols through the libraries libezv , MGTwitterEngine , and libpurple...
that allows communication over the Xfire protocol, using the MacFire implementation (see below). It is the first Xfire client for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Now supports clans, communities.
Cross-platform
- XFMobile (home page), is the Xfire Mobile App. It is an independent client for Xfire. It is a unique application for Xfire on each platform. The first prototype was released in summer 2009. The XFMobile team works on improvements at a high rate. It now supports iPhone, iPod, Android (operating system), Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices. A Symbian version is in process. The iPhone/Pod edition is the most advanced (XFMobile official data); it is free and supports communication over Xfire, communities and clans, screen shot viewing, etc. XFMobile has a growing community of about 30,000 daily active users (XFMobile official data). Four of five stars on the iTunes store. For live support, the XFMobile team is reachable live using "xfmobile" on the Xfire contact list. Xfire users need the same user name and password for their Xfire account.
iPhone, iPod Touch
- Xblaze (home page), an iPhone client for the iPhone and iPod Touch based on the MacFire implementation. Allows communicating over Xfire. Supports clans, communities.
Mac OS X
- MacFire (home page), an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
implementation of the Xfire network protocol for Mac OS XMac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. It was made possible, in part, by prior work done for XBlaze, XfireLib, and OpenFire. - iFire (home page)
- BlackFire (home page), a client for Snow Leopard, but works on Leopard.