Raptr, a social tool for gamers launches beta today

Brian Ambrozy 4 Sep, 2008 at 4:08pm ET Article published in Tech

Yesterday evening I got word that Raptr launched a public beta.

Raptr aims to be the final social gaming application on your desktop. It connects you with like-minded gamers, friends, and competitors which allows you to share information about your gaming habits, achievements, scores, and more.

The Raptr games list window

This is similar to Steam, but Steam can’t, for example, allow you to see when your Steam friends start playing Call of Duty 4 on the PS3 and then later switch to Castle Crashers on the Xbox 360.

Raptr ties in as many gaming services that they can get their grubby little hands on. Amidst yesterday’s launch, I was able to punch in my Wii, Steam, Xbox Live, and PS3 network information. It also has fields for World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and Xfire.

I’ve added a few friends, such as Icrontic’s Bryan Miller (Cyclonite); as soon as he fires up any game on any of those networks, I can see that. I can also send him a public “shout” since the Raptr client ties in with the Raptr website, or private message him.

The first thing I liked about Raptr was the fact that it scanned my system for, and found, every game I own. It even let me know that Age of Empires III was outdated, and started downloading the patch for it. This could prove to be huge. Trust me, keeping up with patches for my kids’ systems with all their games means I can spend hours on gamershell.com and other patch sites.

This is definitely a beta. I had some weird Adobe Air XML error when I tried to manage the patches that were downloaded for Age of Empires. Also, I didn’t realize that the download speed defaulted to 30K for patches – they took forever (you can change it in the options panel). It downloaded 11 patches to bring my game up to the latest version 1.12, even though I had 1.11 installed already and only needed the tiny 1.11 to 1.12 patch. Updates seem really slow, and I had trouble finding a few of my friends and ended up browsing through every single user to find them.

All in all, I see a lot of potential with a service like Raptr. I can usually tell right away whether or not a new app/service is going to click with me, and my initial reaction is “yes, this will click.” It clearly needs some polish, but since this is a beta, there remains a lot of potential for fixes.

Comments

1. 
   4 Sep 2008 ~ 5:15pm CB In since early this morning. It's cool how it manages my games, but the part where it's supposed to update my status on Twitter and facebook doesn't seem to be working.
   
   Edit: rawr... now it works...
2. 
   4 Sep 2008 ~ 7:31pm Gate28 Think ill pass, im wholly dependent on xfire now >.<
3. 
   4 Sep 2008 ~ 10:26pm CB Xfire is one of the services it incorporates.
   
   I thought of a good analogy while I was explaining to Zan why someone would want this service:
   
   Raptr is to gaming services what Tillian is to IM clients.
4. 
   4 Sep 2008 ~ 11:15pm Gate28 The sad, undeniable truth =(
   
   http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/gate28/nofriends.jpg
   
   I provide a link to stop from spamming this thread with a full size screenshot of my desktop.
   
   raptr = Gate28
   
   Also, how on earth do I get my xfire friends to show up? It would be dandy if i could use it to chat with xfire friends
5. 
   5 Sep 2008 ~ 9:00am Cyclonite The amount of icons on your desktop makes my brain want to explode.
6. 
   5 Sep 2008 ~ 9:05am Thrax

   Cyclonite wrote:

   The amount of icons on your desktop makes my brain want to explode.

   
   ^ this.
7. 
   5 Sep 2008 ~ 11:28am UPSLynx raptr - UPSLynx
   
   Bet you couldn't have guessed.
   
   Everyone else's?
8. 
   5 Sep 2008 ~ 3:23pm CB Looks like we need yet another field added to our forum profiles.
9. 
   5 Sep 2008 ~ 3:37pm primesuspect http://raptr.com/icronticprime
10. 
    6 Sep 2008 ~ 8:48am GnomeWizardd Gnomewizardd is the name, add me!
11. 
    7 Sep 2008 ~ 10:04am Canti Looks useful, I'll try it. raptr = Lord_Canti
12. 
    7 Sep 2008 ~ 4:16pm TiberiusLazarus raptr - tiberiuslazarus
    
    Seems to be a trend with names here....
13. 
    8 Sep 2008 ~ 11:12pm Caffran Why would you need any thing more than steam.
14. 
    9 Sep 2008 ~ 11:51am UPSLynx That's kind of how I feel regarding it, but Steam doesn't go cross platform.
    
    IF you game online with consoles, then Raptr does some pretty sweet stuff there.
    
    And auto patching all of your non-steam games is a huge plus.
15. 
    11 Oct 2011 ~ 8:31pm primesuspect I logged into Raptr today and they have changed significantly since 2008. It is actually really slick, like a social network just for gaming. I saw a bunch of old friends on there. Log back in and check it out again
16. 
    11 Oct 2011 ~ 10:09pm Cliff_Forster

    primesuspect wrote:

    I logged into Raptr today and they have changed significantly since 2008. It is actually really slick, like a social network just for gaming. I saw a bunch of old friends on there. Log back in and check it out again

    
    What they should do is combine the UI for all the major download services in some meaningful and easy to use manor. That would be a huge hit.
17. 
    12 Oct 2011 ~ 8:33am CB The thread explains why I'm suddenly getting raptr friend requests after not hearing from the service in about two years?