Viacom to Pay $102 Million for an Online Game Service
By SAUL HANSELL
Viacom said yesterday that it had acquired Xfire, a Silicon Valley company that makes an instant message system used by video game players, continuing its quest to build Internet businesses focused on young people.
The company, which is the parent of MTV Networks, will pay $102 million in cash for Xfire, which is privately held.
Xfire makes a program similar to other instant message systems in that it lets users communicate with each other while they are online. Its system, however, is designed for people who play game software on their computers. Users can see which games their friends are playing and can automatically link to join them in playing games online.
"We want to be where our audience is," Viacom's chief executive, Tom Freston, said. "And we know that video games are a dominant form of media for young males."
Xfire has some aspects in common with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, another area in which Viacom hopes to expand. Viacom explored acquiring MySpace and IGN, large game-oriented networks of Web sites; both were bought last year by the News Corporation.
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.
For those selling games, Xfire will allow ads to be shown only to those who frequently play similar games. It also distributes previews of games on behalf of publishers. Viacom declined to disclose Xfire's revenue.
Ms. McGrath said that Viacom was looking for more acquisitions related to games, networking and user created content.
Last fall, Viacom bought GameTrailers.com, another site devoted to video about games. Viacom has some video game programming on on its other Internet sites. And it bought Neopets, an interactive fantasy world for young children, which has advertising integrated into the game.
Which is what surprises me about Xbox and MS doing so poorly in North America. Obviously there's absolutely no lotalty to local products and people would rather just ship their money off to Japan by the boatload.
Well, considering he wasn't talking about basic stat tracking, but the achievements feature that is fairly innovative. When's the last time somebody kept track of every PC game you play and what milestones you've hit in each game. It's a new feature and incredibly well done (for the most part).
The man's a genius. Lets see you come up with some of the things that he has. He's done more for the videogame industry than pretty much anyone out there and he continues to innovate. Now personally I don't care for the Sims, but SimCity was always awesome and I just can't wait for Spore.
I love Golden Axe. Whenever I think of old games that defined my childhood, it's always Golden Axe. My babysitter used to have a Genesis that we would play that all night on.
I don't see how using a comfortable wireless controller that fits nicely in your hands while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over a keyboard and mouse, less than 2 feet from the screen.
Especially for 12 hours.
Last I heard, pretty much all these bases are covered. Forza is an inevitability (racing sim), Blue Dragon and Lost Odossey are on the way (eastern RPG), Blazing Angels coming out this month (flight sim), Splinter Cell on the way (stealth), and all the Grand Theft Autos already on Xbox, no reason for them to not show up on 360.
And if you read the article $500 was mentioned once or twice.
I can't believe the stupidity coming from you. It's been stated many times over that the Rev is significantly less powerful than box the 360 and the PS3, with the 360 being very slightly less powerful than the PS3 and some devs saying that the 360 will outperform. I'm also not sure where you're coming up with these numbers, but XBox 360 already has millions sold, analysts predicting 12mil by the end of the year, and more people hopping on the bandwagon every day. So far, out of the people I know that are gamers, most of them (approx. 75%) are going from never owning a console to the 360 or from PS2 to 360. I don't hear anyone caring about the PS3 because they don't have the patience to wait a year until they can get their hands on one. Having a year start and basically same power hardware will give them a boost. So will awesome games like GRAW, Oblivion, Gears of War, Halo 3, etc. The only reason PS3 might have high sales is the same reason PS2 did - their consoles break and need to be replaced. My brother is on his 3rd PS2 and I was on my second until I realized Sony just makes garbage.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
You've contradicted something said on the internet.
We Shall All Burn For This
Viacom to Pay $102 Million for an Online Game Service By SAUL HANSELL Viacom said yesterday that it had acquired Xfire, a Silicon Valley company that makes an instant message system used by video game players, continuing its quest to build Internet businesses focused on young people. The company, which is the parent of MTV Networks, will pay $102 million in cash for Xfire, which is privately held. Xfire makes a program similar to other instant message systems in that it lets users communicate with each other while they are online. Its system, however, is designed for people who play game software on their computers. Users can see which games their friends are playing and can automatically link to join them in playing games online. "We want to be where our audience is," Viacom's chief executive, Tom Freston, said. "And we know that video games are a dominant form of media for young males." Xfire has some aspects in common with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, another area in which Viacom hopes to expand. Viacom explored acquiring MySpace and IGN, large game-oriented networks of Web sites; both were bought last year by the News Corporation. 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. For those selling games, Xfire will allow ads to be shown only to those who frequently play similar games. It also distributes previews of games on behalf of publishers. Viacom declined to disclose Xfire's revenue. Ms. McGrath said that Viacom was looking for more acquisitions related to games, networking and user created content. Last fall, Viacom bought GameTrailers.com, another site devoted to video about games. Viacom has some video game programming on on its other Internet sites. And it bought Neopets, an interactive fantasy world for young children, which has advertising integrated into the game.
I guess people need to replace all of their broken PS2s these days anyway. Wouldn't want to move to the NEXT generation anytime soon.
Wow. Just wow. Sometimes the level of dumb on this site never ceases to amaze me.
Which is what surprises me about Xbox and MS doing so poorly in North America. Obviously there's absolutely no lotalty to local products and people would rather just ship their money off to Japan by the boatload.
Well, considering he wasn't talking about basic stat tracking, but the achievements feature that is fairly innovative. When's the last time somebody kept track of every PC game you play and what milestones you've hit in each game. It's a new feature and incredibly well done (for the most part).
The man's a genius. Lets see you come up with some of the things that he has. He's done more for the videogame industry than pretty much anyone out there and he continues to innovate. Now personally I don't care for the Sims, but SimCity was always awesome and I just can't wait for Spore.
I love Golden Axe. Whenever I think of old games that defined my childhood, it's always Golden Axe. My babysitter used to have a Genesis that we would play that all night on.
I don't see how using a comfortable wireless controller that fits nicely in your hands while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over a keyboard and mouse, less than 2 feet from the screen. Especially for 12 hours.
I guess the difference is that when I go home, I can actually play these games on my 360. Not gonna happen on PS3 or Rev tonight.
Last I heard, pretty much all these bases are covered. Forza is an inevitability (racing sim), Blue Dragon and Lost Odossey are on the way (eastern RPG), Blazing Angels coming out this month (flight sim), Splinter Cell on the way (stealth), and all the Grand Theft Autos already on Xbox, no reason for them to not show up on 360. And if you read the article $500 was mentioned once or twice.
That's exactly why we can complain. Anyway, I'm happy to go home to my 360 every night and actually play some very good games (GRAW currently).
I can't believe the stupidity coming from you. It's been stated many times over that the Rev is significantly less powerful than box the 360 and the PS3, with the 360 being very slightly less powerful than the PS3 and some devs saying that the 360 will outperform. I'm also not sure where you're coming up with these numbers, but XBox 360 already has millions sold, analysts predicting 12mil by the end of the year, and more people hopping on the bandwagon every day. So far, out of the people I know that are gamers, most of them (approx. 75%) are going from never owning a console to the 360 or from PS2 to 360. I don't hear anyone caring about the PS3 because they don't have the patience to wait a year until they can get their hands on one. Having a year start and basically same power hardware will give them a boost. So will awesome games like GRAW, Oblivion, Gears of War, Halo 3, etc. The only reason PS3 might have high sales is the same reason PS2 did - their consoles break and need to be replaced. My brother is on his 3rd PS2 and I was on my second until I realized Sony just makes garbage.