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IGE
Xfire Acquired By Former IGE Execs, Neglects To Keep People Who Made Xfire
Aug 2nd
Message that was sent globally to all logged-in Xfire users this afternoon (courtesy Geldonyetich in the comments on an earlier story):
Xfire was bought by new owners today. Most of the team that has built Xfire over the last six years is leaving. We enjoyed working for you for the last 127 releases and wish we could stay to create the next 127. Good bye, good luck, and game on. — The Xfire Team
Message that was on the Xfire web site shortly afterward:
That would presumably be Chris Kirmse, founder and lead engineer behind Xfire.
After a while, that notice was finally replaced with news on the new owners, namely Titan Platform, soon to rename itself Xfire. Titan’s team includes several IGE veterans, including John Maffei, who stewarded the ZAM media network’s divorce from IGE, Dave Christensen, who was with SOE briefly after his IGE tenure (a move which I yelled about incoherently) and Brock Pierce, IGE’s founder, who threatened to sue me until I posted a picture of a kitten.
TechCrunch, unlike the rest of us, actually committed acts of journalism and talked to some of the folks involved.
We’ve just confirmed with Titan Gaming CEO John Maffei
that they have acquired Xfire – the deal was signed just a couple of hours ago – but have not been able to pin down the exact purchase price.
Given the timing, it looks like Chris Kirmse and whomever walked out the door with him waited until the deal was signed and then publically did everything but tell his userbase to go install Raptr now — which would lead one to think that this was not the happiest of acquisitions. In any event, one suspects that Maffei is far happier to talk to a website covering new media acquisitions than gaming journalists who might actually ask about prior experiences.
So, yeah, this is going to be AWESOME!
Requiem For A Gold Farmer
Dec 3rd
Julian Dibbell writes in Wired on the decline and fall of IGE.
At the same time, the so-called free-to-play model—no subscription fees, revenue derived entirely from direct sales of in-game items—has made inroads in the Asian MMO market and is being embraced by no less a gaming giant than Electronic Arts in the upcoming Battlefield Heroes. But both these models, in their blunt rejection of IGE’s third-party retail model, only underline what Pierce himself implicitly conceded when he sold out to Yantis: There is no future for his once-bright dream except in the dimness of what is plainly now a permanent gray market.
All’s Well That Ends
Apr 9th
Debonneville v. Pierce to, unsurprisingly, settle out of court. Not much to add beyond Duranske’s note:
From a virtual law perspective, I’d been hoping against hope that these two charming gentlemen would continue knocking their heads together for another couple of months, and that the judge would accidentally say something meaningful about virtual property while trying to sort out their nonsense, but that doesn’t appear likely now.
Can You Actually Unring A Bell?
Feb 14th
I’ve just received this charming note from Brock Pierce’s lawyer regarding the Debonneville v. Pierce lawsuit.
It has come to our attention that you have made postings on the website www.brokentoys.org that violate the United States District Court’s Order sealing the Complaint in that case.
To avoid further harm resulting to our client from the violation of the Court’s sealing Order, we hereby demand that by no later than the close of business tomorrow (February 15, 2008) you: (1) take down your January 30, 2008 article discussing the allegations in the sealed document and (2) send our office all copies of the Complaint in your possession, custody or control.
Well, I certainly would not want to violate the spirit or letter of such a nice notice, even if their information on where I live is somewhat out of date and no other attempt was made to contact me before this. So, of course, late tomorrow afternoon, I’ll edit this post and remove the offending information. That should make everyone happy, right? It *is* what they asked for!
Just in the interest of openness, my response:
Although it is my understanding that I am under no legal obligation to comply with the court order you provided, I will comply fully with your first request and take down the blog article referenced by close of business on 2/15/08.
As I have no copies of the document you refer to, I cannot comply with the second request you have made.
I welcome your client’s renewed dedication to legal documentation and remind him that there are several outstanding end user licensing agreements attached to games I have assisted in operating in the past, regarding the explicitly forbidden trade of virtual items and characters in said games that he and his company have performed and expedited, that would benefit from his and his company’s attention.
So, once again, this article will be edited sometime later tomorrow afternoon. This article. Over here. Yeah, this one.
IGE: Less Money, Mo’ Problems
Nov 12th
Virtually Blind has posted paperwork and some commentary from the ongoing Hernandez v. IGE lawsuit.
Remember those vehement, constant insistances that Affinity Media and IGE were totally seperate, really, honest? From the motion to stay filed by IGE (obtained by Virtually Blind):
Defendant, IGE U.S., LLC n/k/a Affinity Media Holdings, LLC, (âIGE USâ)
(n/k/a is legalese for “now known as”). I guess “really seperate” means “until you get us under oath”.
In related news, PlayNoEvil points out an article by MMObux, an RMT-friendly news site, cataloging what appears to be the hostile takeover of IGE’s Chinese arm from Affinity.
Atlas is part of IGE by former shareholders more than a year ago after leaving IGE, a corporation organized. IGE them because of their dissatisfaction with Affinity in the direction of development under the leadership chose to leave. These IGE former shareholders understand and are concerned about the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) market, and thus set up the Atlas, looking forward to this market for popular and urgent demand changes. In Atlas, we attach importance to suppliers and cooperative relationship, and that all suppliers should be given due respect, including by agreement obtain timely payments. Therefore, you are in arrears through the Affinity purchase price incident on our part is not accepted and acceptable.
(My apologies for the Google-generated engrish.)
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