Xfire, the instant messaging/social network service for gamers recently raised $4 Million From Intel Capital, and is now an independent company again. A little over a year ago, Xfire was acquired by Titan Gaming, and since then development on the software has been pretty slow. Client updates have been few and far between, and new game support was outsourced to a team of community volunteers instead of being developed and tested in-house. As a result of the capital injection, Xfire is now flying solo again, and they have some big plans for the software in the future.
They are already testing a beta build of the client that supports in-game rendering for DirectX 10 and 11. This means that Xfire will start working with modern games, allowing you to chat, take screenshots, record video, and broadcast live gameplay all from the Xfire overlay that appears on-top of the game. They are currently testing with World of Warcraft (DX11), The Lord of The Rings Online (DX10/DX11), Dungeons & Dragons (DX10/DX11), and Battlefield 3 (DX10/DX11). If all goes well, expect to see a lot more newer games supporting XIG.
They are also focusing on fixing some of the social network features. Xfire has a network manager feature that allows you to chat on other networks such as AIM, MSN, and Twitter. However since it was first implemented, some of the protocols have changed, creating issues with the Xfire client. Fixes are promised, as well as support for additional networks.
Overall, it seems like it is a good time to be an Xfire user, and they want your feedback. If you currently use Xfire, take a few minutes to complete this survey and let them know how you feel about it.
Now to go download that beta client so I can get Xfire working in Battlefield 3.
