Gamer's IM service Xfire is preparing to broadcast a World of Warcraft raid as a spectator event. Using a plugin for the Xfire client, up to 4,000 viewers will be able to watch and learn when the crack Nihilum guild launch an assault on the bastard-hard Sunwell Plateau.

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]

Sometimes Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Orkut and OpenSocial just aren't enough. Too much real world stuff, not enough gamerscore bragging.

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]

Xfire is hosting a special chat with the developers of Hellgate: London this Wednesday, which acts as both the launch day for the game as well as International Spooky Day. Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper rounds out the five-man crack team of people who discuss things:pertaining to Hellgate:

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

The team will discuss the ins and outs of creating the game while touching on the game mechanics, classes, multiplayer, etc. The chat is scheduled for 10PM GMT, which in a real time zone like Eastern is 6PM. Silly made-up time zones.

Hellgate: London Page at Xfire [Xfire]

Adding to their stellar lineup of Electronic Arts, Konami, Nintendo, and a slew of companies you could care less about, IDG World Expo has just introduced two brand new exhibitors to the E For All Expo hall. GameTrailers and Xfire now join the ranks of the few, the proud, the actually showing up. The two MTV brands will be bringing the show home in true GameTrailers style, with interviews of industry insiders, videos of events, and on-location shoots of GT originals Bonus Round and Game One. The brands have contests and promotions lined up for the event, including ticket giveaways for those too cheap to pay for a ticket. This is great news for the gaming press and the gaming community in general, as it pretty much means we can sit home and watch GameTrailers' coverage instead of actually attending. Huzzah!

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Everybody's favourite video game movie director will be chatting with the Xfire community tonight about the movie Postal, which sees wide release next month. Participants will be able to ask Uwe questions about the movie, win signed posters, and hopefully play "Let's See How Mad We Can Make Boll", which is fun for the whole family. The chat starts tonight at 6 Eastern, 3 Pacific, and should last until he tells everyone to do rude things to their mothers and storms off.

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

Online community thingy Xfire is celebrating. It just chalked up its eight millionth subscriber. Which has led to hard partying at Xfire HQ, as well as the release of some hard numbers. And man do I love bullshit numbers. Those 8 million subscribers have logged 120,000 man-years of play (dog and fish years were unavailable at time of writing), and are racking up over 440,000 hours worth of WoW a day. At the other end of the spectrum, Diablo 2 is still being played, with 12,502 hours a day logged. That's some dedication right there.
Xfire hits 8 million users [Gamesindustry.biz]