AGDC: Xfire Announces Hellgate: London Voice Chat Deal

MTV-owned game-related chat and community service Xfire has announced that its proprietary voice chat application will be used in Flagship Studios’ upcoming online title Hellgate: London. Using Xfire’s peer-to-peer communication system, gamers have the ability to chat with fellow gamers without needing to manage a standalone voice server. Additionally, online game players will be able to log in to Xfire from within Hellgate: London, enabling them to easily add their friends and other Hellgate: London gamers into an Xfire voice chat room where they can chat as they play. Gamasutra caught up with Xfire General Manager Adam Boyden to briefly discuss the new game-specific announcement for the tool, which supports more than 800 games by running as an independent application. We particularly asked if Xfire is intending to make a lot more of these game-specific announcements in the future, or is it happy for its tool to run independently of games? Boyden noted: "We are delighted to be working with the Flagship team around Hellgate. Our application and tools work extremely well independently of games, but can always have their functionality increased even more when integrated within the game itself. To this end Xfire has developed SDKs for statistics and voice chat to enable this integration. As for any more announcements, I would say that you should just watch this space!" Gamasutra also asked Boyden whether there was particular advertising in Hellgate-specific areas of Xfire, given that the service is ad-supported - to which the GM replied: "There is nothing different for the Xfire user whether they play Hellgate or any of the other 900 odd games supported by Xfire. Within Hellgate the experience is seamless to the gamer and Xfire runs in the background." Also quoted as part of the press announcement, Tyler Thompson, Technical Director of Flagship Studios commented of the deal: “By integrating Xfire’s voice chat feature into Hellgate: London, we are able to strengthen our online community and make it even easier for our players to connect together online. The Xfire package will bolster the overall gaming experience for our users.”