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Viacom Buys Xfire For $102 Million
The New York Times is reporting that communications company Viacom has purchased the Xfire gaming network for $102 Million. From the article: "Judy McGrath, the chief executive of MTV Networks, which will oversee Xfire, said it would stay focused on building a community for game players, but its technology might be adapted for broader network services. Xfire has attracted four million users since it was introduced in 2004. Of those, one million are active and spend 91 hours each month using the service. The company sells advertising on its software and Web site, both to video game makers and to mass market marketers, including Dodge, Pepsi and Unilever."
I can't wait to be playing Quake 4 or FEAR and get fragged. Suddenly, rather than hear my opponent or teammate, I hear a disembodied voice say, "You got wasted! How about you clean yourself up with Lever 2000, the soap that gets bloodstains our of anything! For all your 2000 parts, no matter where the frags end up!"
Imagine, if you will, a company founded on synergistic paradigm shifting. That's what Xfire brings to the Viacom table. Their action plan is mission-critical to the next steps in the challenges of off the shelf deliverables. They are a proactive platform of performance measurements in pushing the envelope to facilitate right-sizing solutions and strategies in the run up to knowledge transfer in video games. They are a goal-oriented, engaged, client-focused business on the same page as MTV and Viacom in moving forward into the repurposing video games to find the golden thread of connectivity and the seamless skills transfer of where the rubber hits the road. The acquisition of Xfire by Viacom will impact the top of mind of millions of go-to teenagers with capital to spend. I don't believe I have to explain further the value-added incentives, let alone the totallity of the leveraging vision set forth here. At the end of the day, it's really about multi-tasking the blue sky thinking by the COB.
If you still don't understand what they do, then I guess it just doesn't register on your radar screen, and there's no sense in moving the goal posts or elaborating on the metrics of the mapping.
Its an advertizers dream. You get a system that narrows down a specific group of interested gamers, and it tracks what games people are playing, so you know what games people play, how much the play, and once you data mine that, you can target ads, based on what other gamers who are playing the same games.
i would say for an established user base, and a decent technology, and a fat cheque for Thresh thats a good deal imo.