Confirmed: PlayStation 3 Gets Xfire Middleware

Representatives from online gaming platform and community developer Xfire, Inc, have announced that it has partnered with Sony's PlayStation 3 Tools and Middleware Development and License Agreement to bring its ad-supported friend tracking and multiplayer communication services to select PS3 titles. Using the to-be-developed Xfire SDK, PS3 developers can use the service to, for example, allow the service's existing 5 million PC users to see when their friends are playing Xfire-supported PS3 games, in much the same manner as Microsoft's current Xbox Live service. However, each company will need to reach an agreement with Xfire to do so - it is not a universal PlayStation 3 service, but it supported on a game by game basis. Xfire has also announced that the first such game to integrate the service is Sony Online Entertainment's Untold Legends Dark Kingdom. Using Xfire technology, gamers will be able to track Dark Kingdom players, as well as chat with players on either a PC or a PlayStation 3. By connecting their PlayStation 3 to the internet, Dark Kingdom players will be able to log in to Xfire from the front end of Dark Kingdom, which will act as a notifier to send messages when friends have logged into the service, as well as allow in-game chat during gameplay, regardless if the friend is on a PS3 or PC. The news follows earlier reports claiming Xfire was to be a completely separate service from those offered by Sony itself through its PlayStation Network Platform, and would be used in Untold Legends alone. While the service is still separate from Sony's own, with this announcement, any other developer wishing to integrate Xfire can do so.