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Xfire Purchased, Team Leaving
phorce phed and several other readers sent news that a system notification was sent out this evening through the Xfire IM client, to wit: "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." According to Wikipedia, the new owner is 3D Realms.
From what I've heard it's been edited multiple times since the announcement and both times was a different name of the buyer. Just wait until something official turns up.
3D Realms decided that in order to get DNF completed, they needed 100% X-Fire integration, otherwise DNF would remain DNF, Forever.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
At 127 releases; they were on the verge of an 8 bit signed integer overflow. I suspect one of the managers panicked and convinced the CEO to sell before they had a chance to launch another and have to start over from scratch anyway.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Not according to Wikipedia -- according to some random edit made to wikipedia with no source and reverted minutes later. Given DNF jokes, I hardly think this bears mentioning.
3D Realms seems unlikely and the random edit was only in Wikipedia for a few minutes. And why does the summary link to the static "down" html page? The website is up and working. Nice twisting there.
But really, the previous owner was Music Television. I always thought that was a little bit weird.
By who I don't know, go look at xfire's main page.
1: The buyout was so huge that they all decided to "go out on top" with a huge retirement package.
2: The team was so unhappy with the terms of Viacom's selling of the company that they are all leaving in lock-step.
I'm, unfortunately, leaning towards the second option as it seems more realistic. I always knew the Viacom buyout would end in tears, I just didn't know it would take this long.
~The roAm
As of late, Slashdot seems to be phoning it in at best. I've been following the site for years and I've never seen such an apathetic disregard to both the site and the community from the editors. Lately, stories have either been incredibly sensational or just downright retarded. Or hell, even troll'ish. I'm wondering if Taco and company should just hang it up and try something new. Give people with some fire in their belly a shot. I don't know ... when you're citing wikipedia as a breaking news source, you gotta be wondering if what you're scraping is the bottom of the barrel, or the pile of shit underneath it.
... it's all right to change the Microsoft icon. It was funny twelve years ago. It's kind of retarded now. Especially since the company now looks to be run by the three stooges after a weekend bender.
And by the way
xfire itself
Team Leaving
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
Kotaku
Kotaku has tried to reach Xfire for additional comment through a press inquiry email address. Any that comes will be updated here.
So in other words, 3D Realms seems more of a rumor than anything. Hey, let's just say EA bought it. Or Curse?
You aren't really familiar with what Xfire is, are you?
Not sure where you are getting off accusing games to be bundled with 'crap widgets' ('widgets', seriously?) Xfire was completely 3rd party. I can't think of any games off the top of my head that came bundled with it, though I am sure there were a few. I used it once for like a week and got rid of it, I never used it, though I thought it was a pretty decent application.
I really can't think of any random crap 'widgets' other than Gamespy.../shudder. I'm, sure there are a few other random things I'm forgetting, but it's far from the deluge of crap that you are describing.
As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
Actually I'd never heard of it, and so had no idea at all, but thanks to the excellent summary I now have only almost no idea at all.
Step 1: Edit Wikipedia article to make outrageous claim. /.
Step 2: Submit story about the news to
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit.
Discuss.
It's what we used before Steam matured and added all of its modern features. Why would someone buy a free chat client?
It's a perfect time for being wasted.
A perfect time to watch the stars.
- Burden Brothers, "Beautiful Night"
source
Wikipedia: about as reliable as TMZ
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/02/exclusive-titan-gaming-takes-xfire-off-viacoms-hands/
"We’ve just confirmed with Titan Gaming CEO John Maffei that they have acquired Xfire – the deal was signed just a couple of hours ago – but have not been able to pin down the exact purchase price. Here’s a brief statement from Titan:
Titan Gaming has purchased Xfire. The terms of the purchase are undisclosed. Titan will be taking on the Xfire name. 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 and monetize their games"
Xfire has been owned by MTV for a long time. http://www.xfire.com/cms/xf_acquisition/ I can't think of anyone else that I would consider worse.
Just a general question, does it ever happen that the employees of a company all quit after said company changes owners? Then the company is suddenly worthless if it's based on intellectual stuff like software, right? So is the law OK with it or can the new owners sue or whatever ?
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I don't need to see this right at the top of the comments [1]. I thought slashdot released stories earlier to logged in users or subscribers? If so, then how are ACs getting first comment?
-Jar
[1] Yes I know I can change my comment browsing level, but I shouldn't have to. Besides, thanks to the useless mods on /. there's a lot of good stuff modded down into the minuses.
Together, We Can Make Slashdot Better. I Do NOT Mod ACs. - Check Me Out
sure I do, it's a framework that allows quick generation of web-service servers/clients.
You can't handle the truth.
Um... Blizzard is still doing great. What are you smoking? And why would you think Viacom has anything to do with Blizzard? I don't think Viacom owns Activision, and it's Activision that bought Blizzard...
I think you have your companies mixed up unless you know something about Viacom the rest of the world doesn't, they're one of Activision's competitors (Activision owns the Guitar Hero franchise and Viacom acquired Harmonix, makers of Rock Band). Activision Blizzard was formed when Activision and the Vivendi Games group (of which Blizzard was a part) merged.
Beyond that after playing Starcraft II, hearing that Blizzard was destroyed is certainly news to me.
Titan Gaming Buys XFIRE
It says right on their website they bought XFIRE.