Viacom has decided to pick up gaming tool developer Xfire for $102 million, and place it under the MTV Networks division.
The ad-supported Xfire program lets its users see what games friends are playing at a given time, as well as where they are playing online. Xfire also shows which server a friend may be connected to for a particular game.
Today the company announced Viacom’s offer, which Xfire accepted. MTV will “help us to continue building Xfire into a larger and more exciting community,” Xfire said in a statement.
Xfire also has voice communication and other useful components for its registered users. The software checks with various public game servers to identify which buddies may be on line, and what games they are playing.
Many games allow Xfire users to join with just one mouse click. That means the user does not have to cut and paste a server address to get to a game; Xfire does it for the user. A number of games also permit in-game messages through Xfire instead of needing to minimize the game window on a system.
Those are all great features for gamers. The real appeal to Viacom comes from the advertising model Xfire uses to support the service. Lots of young males in the sweet demographic spot that marketers crave play online games. Xfire makes no secret it has plenty of them to deliver as an audience:
There are now well over 3,200,000 registered Xfire gamers, and the average user runs Xfire for over 80 hours per month. We offer the only way to reach these passionate gamers while they’re actually playing games. Game publishers, movie studios and consumer brands have used Xfire’s IAB-standard ad impressions and fully immersive sponsorships to reach their best buyers in an effective, hip, and truly unique way.
MTV looks like a good match for Xfire. Its programming and target audience match that of Xfire, and MTV has been host to shows like the debut of the Xbox 360, so it has maintained at least a passing interest in gaming and its audience.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
