The Rise of the Godslayer expansion introduces players to the lands of Khitai, with several new world regions filled with new dungeons, quests and rewards. There's a new player race, alternate advancement, and all kinds of goodies to make your stay in Hyboria more enjoyable. The expansion is due out next year, but fans can get an early peek on Monday when Funcom presents a live gameplay demonstration on Xfire.com.

"We have been working on the expansion for ‘Age of Conan' for quite some time now, and everyone on the team is eager to lift the veil and include the public in what we are trying to bring to life," says Game Director and Executive Producer Craig Morrison who will be hosting the live gameplay demonstration together with expansion Lead Designer Joel Bylos. "Development is coming together nicely, and we are really excited to see the empire of Khitai coming to life! Doing a live demo on Xfire is a brilliant way for us to reach out to a broad audience and show just what they can expect from ‘Rise of the Godslayer' as we continue to move closer and closer to launch."

The demo kicks off at 12PM Pacific time, so make sure you pack a lunch.

The new service is aimed at every facet of the PC gaming community, from pro-teams that want to show off their skills to publishers that wish to show off their wares. Even you, the solo PC gamer, can allow the world to watch you play World of Warcraft, garnering helpful comments from the community via Livestream's chat functionality. Helpful tips like "should have presured the pally abit more" and "lalalalalala." Helpful!

"The partnership expands Xfire's offering to our vibrant community. It keeps our users involved, engaged and active. For Livestream, the partnership adds compelling gaming content to the linear and on-demand video content already available to millions of viewers and reinforces the power of the Livestream Platform," says Chris Kirmse, Xfire's General Manager. "We integrated Livestream's Platform within two weeks using their Platform APIs providing our users a 1-click solution to start a live broadcast."

You can visit Livestream's Xfire Gaming Network page right now to watch other people playing video games, or download Xfire and show the world your mad skills.

The plugin uses multimedia sharing tech from Dyyno to allow viewers to switch between four different character POVs - Druid, Hunter, Warrior and Warlock.

This is the second such broadcast via Xfire — this event is expected to take up to four hours from start to finish. Numb bums all round, then, and this definitely qualifies as niche viewing. Mind you, 4,000 viewers is comparable to some bottom-feeding cable channels. If the tech was there, would you sit down and watch a WoW raid in prime time?

Xfire to broadcast WoW's Sunwell Plateau raid live [Masively]

Enter Raptr - a new social network for gamers founded by Dennis 'Thresh' Fong (he had to do something with all that prize money) that offers a way of tracking your friends and sharing what you are in to on several popular games networks.

Once you have signed in and chosen a nick, you can enter your IDs on Xbox Live, PSN, World of Warcraft, Steam and others, then start entering the games in your collection.

Where it can, Raptr will pull data from your various networks and update your profile with a list of your current games, achievements and the like. There are plugins for displaying your data on Facebook et al too, of course.

A free client for PC or Mac will display and update data from you and your friends in real time as well as suck data from any games you play on your box — less of an issue for most Mac geeks, presumably.

Raptr [via 1UP]

November is showing a daily tally of 10% over last month, largely fueled by the current number one played game on the service, Call of Duty 4.

For those interested, here are the aggregated hours by month on the service:

August 2006: 618,587
September 2006: 546,601
October 2006: 598,441

August 2007: 775,368
September 2007: 648,715
October 2007: 585,260

Xfire: Online hours continue to fall [gamesindustry]

* Bill Roper, CEO Flagship Studios
* Aletheia Simonson, Art Producer
* Bill Manegold, Game Programmer
* Amir Ebrahimi, Graphics Programmer
* Guy Somberg, Audio and Gameplay Programmer

Hellgate: London Page at Xfire [Xfire]

CONSOLE GAME EXPERIEINCE NOW AVAILABLE FOR WORLD OF WARCRAFT(r) SwitchBlade(TM) Software Available for Download from Xfire(TM) Provides Easy World of Warcraft Play Via Xbox 360™ Controller

MAITLAND, Fla. - October 16, 2007 - Blue Orb, Inc. today announced Switchblade, a software package designed to allow gamers to play Blizzard's massively popular World of Warcraft using an Xbox 360 controller. SwitchBlade is available today for download for free exclusively from Xfire (www.xfire.com).

SwitchBlade is an easy-to-use application that brings a fully configured game controller interface to any PC game. Once SwitchBlade is installed, it provides a console gaming experience for the gamer looking for a new way to play popular PC games. The first game supported by SwitchBlade is World of Warcraft. Preconfigured key bindings map the Xbox 360 controller buttons to the most commonly used World of Warcraft controls.

In addition to its "plug and play" pre-configured options, SwitchBlade is a highly customizable application. Experienced World of Warcraft players get extensive opportunities to reconfigure button mappings to match their unique style of play.

"We all know that World of Warcraft is popular, but a lot of gamers are just hooked on the console controller experience," said Aaron Levin, Blue Orb's Vice President of Business Development. "With SwitchBlade, they can relax on the couch with a gamepad instead of hunching over a keyboard and mouse."

"Partnering with Blue Orb enables us to offer a superior playing experience for Xfire users," said Adam Boyden, Xfire's General Manager. "We invite gamers to download the free SwitchBlade software from Xfire and experience a new way to play World of Warcraft."

Future versions of SwitchBlade will include support for a wide range of PC games, and will provide support for additional types of game controllers.

SwitchBlade is available for free download and registration from Xfire.com. Registered SwitchBlade users receive product updates at no charge. User forums, product announcements, and contest information is available at http://www.switchbladegaming.com.

E for All Expo Adds MTV Networks' GameTrailers and Xfire to Its Growing List of Leading Industry Exhibitors

GameTrailers and Xfire Make Presence Felt through Onsite and Broadcast Activities at the Inaugural Video Game Event

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.—Oct. 4, 2007—IDG World Expo today announced that GameTrailers and Xfire, both divisions of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:VIA.B) MTV Networks Entertainment Group, have signed on to participate in Entertainment for All(TM) Expo (E for All(TM)) (www.EforAllExpo.com), scheduled for October 18-21, 2007, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The two MTV Networks gaming brands join a list of more than 70 participating companies in the consumer-friendly interactive entertainment event.

E for All attendees and fans at home will have the opportunity to get up close and personal with GameTrailers' extensive interactive stage. Xfire(TM) gaming stations will offer mini-tournaments and
"shoot the pro" challenges along with live celebrity chats from the floor. In addition, GameTrailers' original shows, "Bonus Round" and "Game One" will shoot on-location, featuring exclusive, live interviews with industry luminaries, top gamers and fans onsite.

"GameTrailers and Xfire wouldn't miss the opportunity to participate in E for All and look forward to bringing the show home to the GT community with our in depth coverage," said Jon Slusser, SVP Spike digital media entertainment group.

In addition to their plans for on-site, the two brands - GameTrailers and Xfire - have planned contests and promotions surrounding their participation in E for All Expo - including ticket giveaways and prizes leading up to and on-site at this inaugural event.

"We are thrilled to have GameTrailers and Xfire on board for E for All," said Mary Dolaher, CEO of IDG World Expo. "Their interactive stage will be a huge draw for game fans at the event. E for All is all
about the people who are passionate about games, and this kind of content provides even more opportunity for the community of gamers to gather."

Xfire's Live Postal Chat with Uwe Boll [Xfire]

With PLAYSTATION 3 Online getting propped up by Xfire, Microsoft blogger Ozymandias weighs in for the requisite thunder stealing. Sony mentioned that Xfire is not replacing SCE's PlayStation Network Platform, but simply be "complementary" in that it will provide additional features and connectivity with the Xfire network. Cool, huh?

Not so, says Ozymandias:

What we end up with is a bit of a mishmash of online accounts, logins, and services. For example, now when I play a PS3 title I simply can't depend on having a single Friends list. Sony will manage the 'master' list, which should have presence in every PS3 title, and Xfire will be a plugin that some publishers integrate into some games. This means gamers can't depend on finding their friends in one place (if the game even supports Xfire)...

Another challenge is that Xfire is now effectively middleware—and that's not free. Had Sony purchased and integrated Xfire into their SDK I could see the effective cost of integration being 'free' to publishers. Now, unfortunately, each and every publisher has to look at their budget and decide whether adding a second online service/friends list/presence is worth it. I have no idea what Xfire's licensing costs are, but whatever it is, it's not free—Sony lost that opportunity. And that means publishers have to decide whether to spend extra dollars, effort, and time in an era when game costs are already spiraling higher and higher.

Sadly, this appears to be an artifact of Sony's online service being late to the game and likely underwhelming.

We're a little less than a month away from when the console launches in Japan, and we're still largely in the dark. Or rather, feel in the dark. Obviously, Sony will illuminate more on its online service for the PS3 at its San Francisco presser later this month. My concern: The PS3's online functions have been lost in a Blu-ray haze. Yours? Brian Ashcraft

Not So Cool, Dudes [Ozymandias]

Xbox Live has a four year start on Sony. Sony's earlier efforts at online were a joke at best, a free-for-all at worse. So how the heck does Sony intend on catching up with Microsoft's 4 year head start in online console gaming?

According to 1UP: they're going to use Xfire, the PC messaging, matchmaking and gaming client.

1UP reports a transcript of Viacom's Q2 earnings report as proof, and collaborates it with some previous comments by Ken Kutaragi:

Importantly, Xfire just signed a deal with Sony to create a version of their platform for the new PS3, which will now enable Xfire to extend its reach further into the huge console gaming market.

In addition, Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom — a PS3 launch exclusive — is in Xfire's PC .ini file.

Luke Smith at 1UP puts together a compelling case that Xfire will, indeed, be an integral part of Sony's online strategy, and runs down exactly what features Xfire has that can compete with Live. It all looks extremely convincing. We're not sure how big Xfire will play into PS3's online strategy, but it looks to definitely play. Florian Eckhardt

Eds Note: Sony Online Entertainment's Chris Kramer contacted Kotaku, saying, "SOE has been in talks with Xfire about potentially including some of their technology in Untold Legends Dark Kingdom, our PlayStation 3 launch title. This proposed deal is completely separate and independent from the PlayStation Network Platform, and is something that SOE was examining specifically for Dark Kingdom. More information on Xfire and Dark Kingdom will be coming soon." Likewise, Sony Computer Entertainment responded to 1Up with this statement: "We can confirm that Sonly Online Entertainment is in talks with Viacom and Xfire for a single, specific PS3 game. However, there are no announcements at this time regarding any discussions between SCEA, Viacom and Xfire." Expect further details as they surface.

Sony's Answer to Xbox Live Revealed [1UP]

In-game matchmaking software company Xfire is teaming up with Blizzard in a promotional contest for the best World of Warcraft machinima. Grand prize is $23k, which is approximately a 127-year WoW subscription.

The objective of the contest is to select the best fan-made movies using World of Warcraft characters and locations - an increasingly popular area of amateur film-making known as machinima.

Contestants are invited to submit entries in four categories - short film, comedy, drama/action and dance/music video - with the criterion being that they must all be cut together from footage recorded in World of Warcraft.

The deadline is September 15th, so get cracking. There are also a butt-ton of runner-up prizes, so even if your sweeping epic about the shocking sexual exploitation of the Orgrimmar Orphanage doesn't top the list in the Music Video category, you still have a whack at some nice plunder. Eliza Gauger

Here's a chunky little stat: X-Fire, the specialized IM engine for gamers, claims that its users play an average of 88 hours a month. 22 hours a week is just over 3 hours a day, although of course weekday play will always be less than weekend play.

Here's a question for you: how many of you watch TV at the same time as playing games?

Gamasutra: Broadband Games Expand

EXCLUSIVE chat with Firaxis, the development team of Civilization IV!" [Xfire]