Playfire
{{short description|Gaming social network}}
{{Infobox dot-com company
| name =
| logo = Playfire logo.png
| logo_size = 200px
| logocaption = Playfire logo
| founder = Kieran O'Neill, Sophia Hayes, Ben Phillips
| area_served = Worldwide
| type = Social network service
| screenshot =
| caption = Screenshot of Playfire
| commercial = Yes
| language = English
| location = London, United Kingdom
| industry = Social networking service, video games
| registration = Required
| key_people = Paul Sulyok (Co-Founder & CEO Green Man Gaming & Playfire)
| founded = December 2007 in London, UK
| dissolved = 30 may 2017
| launch_date = {{Start date|2008|03|30|df=y}}
| current_status = Inactive
}}
Playfire was a social gaming networking website targeted towards core video game players. Playfire allowed users the ability to automatically track their in-game achievements, trophies, and gameplay, as well as earn rewards for playing their games.
History
The company was founded in December 2007 by Kieran O'Neill, Sophia Hayes & Ben Phillips and Playfire was first launched into private BETA in March 2008. A public BETA followed in June 2008. Playfire secured £1.3m Funding in November 2009,{{cite web|url=http://startups.co.uk/kieran-oneill-receives-1-3m-backing-for-playfire/|title=Kieran O'Neill receives £1.3m backing for Playfire |work=Startups.co.uk|date=November 25, 2013}} and went on to be acquired by Green Man Gaming in 2012. At the time of acquisition, Playfire had more than 1.2 million users tracking over 50,000 video games on the website.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/24/playfire-hits-a-million-users-of-its-analytics-for-gamers/|title=Playfire Hits A Million Users Of Its Analytics For Gamers|first=Mike|last=Butcher|publisher=|date= February 24, 2012}}
Before creating Playfire, two of the Playfire founders had started and ran a PlayStation 3 focused news and forums website called PlayStation Universe. The idea for Playfire came from observing how gamers included information about themselves such as their PSN ID, recently played games and other things in their signatures below each forum post.
Playfire was the first website to release a PlayStation gamercard which attracted a large number of gamers to the service.{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5022059/playfire-launches-ps3-trophies-gamercard-service|title=Playfire Launches PS3 Trophies Gamercard Service|first=Leigh|last=Alexander|publisher=Kotaku.com|date=July 8, 2008}} The site iterated through a number of features, and introduced automatic tracking of Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gameplay in March 2011.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/09/start/network-gamer|title=Playfire: The social network dedicated to gamers|magazine=Wired|date=August 17, 2011|author=Tom Cheshire|archivedate= December 1, 2011|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111201172718/http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/09/start/network-gamer|url-status=dead}}
In September 2011 Playfire partnered with GameSpot to bring Playfire users profile to GameSpot through an API partnership.
On 9 July 2012 Playfire was acquired by digital games retailer Green Man Gaming.{{cite web|url=https://venturebeat.com/2012/07/09/green-man-gaming-playfire-merge/|title=Green Man Gaming merges with gaming social network Playfire|publisher=VentureBeat|date=July 9, 2012|author=OMRI PETITTE}}
At the end of 2013, Green Man Gaming announced that its Playfire service was able to track in-game achievements/trophies and gameplay on Xbox One{{cite web|url=http://www.thisisxbox.com/playfire-now-tracking-xbox-one/|title=Playfire now tracking Xbox One - This Is Xbox|date=10 December 2013|publisher=}} and PlayStation 4.{{cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/207666/Playfire_now_tracking_PS4.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226080516/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/207666/Playfire_now_tracking_PS4.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 26, 2013|title=Gamasutra - The Art & Business of Making Games|publisher=Gamasutra|date=2013-12-23}}
In January 2014, Playfire launched its Rewards BETA.{{cite web|url=http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/green-man-gaming-launches-playfire-rewards-beta/033089|title=Green Man Gaming launches Playfire Rewards beta|publisher=PC Retail|date=January 30, 2014|author=Matthew Jarvis }} the Rewards BETA encourages users to link their Steam account to their Playfire account in order to earn Green Man Gaming store Credit.{{cite web|url=http://www.computerandvideogames.com/476272/sponsored-get-paid-to-play-steam-games-with-playfire/|title=Get paid to play Steam games with Playfire|publisher=|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911013950/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/476272/sponsored-get-paid-to-play-steam-games-with-playfire/|archivedate=September 11, 2014|date= September 10, 2014}} Available Rewards are listed daily on the Playfire Rewards. Page{{cite web|url=https://www.playfire.com/a/rewards|title=Rewards BETA - Playfire|publisher=}} and by May 2014, over one million Rewards had been given out to BETA participants{{cite web|url=http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/read/playfire-blazes-through-the-one-million-rewards-mark/0132119|title=Playfire blazes through the ONE MILLION rewards mark!|work=MCV UK|date=May 7, 2014}}
Playfire sponsored the Most Played Game Award at the 32nd Golden Joystick Awards,{{cite web|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/playfire-announces-most-played-golden-joystick/|title=Playfire announces Most Played Golden Joystick|work=PC Gamer|date=October 21, 2014}} and sponsored the Gamers' Choice Award at the Games Media Awards 2014{{cite web|url=http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/games-media-awards-gamers-choice-vote-is-open-now/0139104|title=Games Media Awards: Gamers' Choice vote is open now|work=MCV UK|date= September 30, 2014}} in October 2014.
In blog post on 7 November 2016, Green Man Gaming announced that Playfire is closing. It will be merged with their new "Community" site that GMG made on the Muut platform.{{cite web|url=https://www.greenmangaming.com/blog/new-community-platform-on-the-way/|title=New community platform on the way|date=November 7, 2016}} Later, on 5 May 2017 Green Man Gaming announced Playfire is coming to a close this year.{{cite web |url=https://www.greenmangaming.com/blog/playfire-to-close/|title=Farewell, Playfire|date=May 5, 2017}} As of 30 May 2017 Playfire was merged with GMG Community with its website [https://www.playfire.com playfire.com] now redirecting to [https://www.greenmangaming.com/playfire greenmangaming.com/playfire].
Investment
Playfire initially raised £1.3m in funding from investors including Niklas Zennström (the founder of Skype), Michael Birch (the founder of Bebo), Chris Deering (the former Chairman of SCE), William Reeve (the founder of LOVEFiLM) and others.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/confirmed-gamer-social-network-playfire-secures-2-1m-series-a/|title=Confirmed: Gamer social network Playfire secures $2.1m Series A|first=Steve|last=O'Hear|date=November 10, 2009 |publisher=Techcrunch}}