Raptr was a

social-networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods ...

website and

instant messenger Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

developed by Raptr, Inc. intended for use by

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

players.

Dennis Fong Dennis Fong (), better known by his online alias Thresh, is an American businessman and retired professional player of the first-person shooter video games '' Quake'' and ''Doom''. He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social net ...

, co-founder of

Xfire Xfire was a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers that also served as a game server browser with various other features. It was available for Microsoft Windows. Xfire was originally developed by Ultimate Arena based in Men ...

, founded the company Raptr, Inc. in 2007; it is located in Mountain View,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The company raised 12 million dollars in funding from investors including Accel Partners and Founders Fund. The service was shut down on September 30, 2017. The site currently redirects to the wallpapers.com page for Ford Raptor wallpapers.

Software

The client, which was a downloadable application for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, supports Yahoo! Instant Messenger,

GTalk Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users. Google Talk was also the name o ...

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...

ICQ ICQ was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client founded in June 1996 by Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father, Yossi Vardi. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally ...

, and

Facebook Chat Messenger, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary software, proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the Client software, client application ...

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics) Protocol originally (in Late Middle English, c. 15th century) meant the minutes or logbook taken at a meeting, upon which an agreement was based. The term now commonly refers to ...

s and allows users to import their

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

, and

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

accounts. It also included other features such as game/achievements tracking, in-game overlay, and game management. Raptr offers a few images showing a user's game statistics for use in

signatures A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...

. On the website, users added video games to their profile, as well as track game play time and achievements, share reviews, game related information, and game activity. Raptr let users publish their gaming accomplishments to sites like

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Plurk Plurk () is a free social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 360 text characters in length (as of 2016). Updates are then shown ...

FriendFeed FriendFeed was a real-time feed aggregator that consolidated updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and microblogging updates, as well as any type of RSS/Atom (Web standard), Atom feed. It was ...

, and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. One of the main features was Raptr rewards, a program where users earn a currency, called Raptr points, while playing or gaining achievements, those points could be exchanged for various rewards such as in-game items, avatars, new games, etc. In February 2014, AMD invested in Raptr, which improved the reward system, allowing users to earn points for optimizing their games with the app and added discounts and giveaways for real hardware. Raptr launched in a closed beta on February 2, 2008, and launched an open beta to the public on September 3, 2008. Raptr had partnerships with video game publishers

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

Ijji ijji was a free multiplayer game portal website. Games hosted at ijji ranged from traditional shooters and MMORPGs to more accessible casual games, all of which were free to download and play, and with the majority featuring competitive multip ...

, and the Raptr client was bundled with the PC release of '' Red Faction: Guerrilla''. In December 2009, Raptr partnered with

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

to provide both communities with extra features. In 2014, Raptr rebooted its business plan to focus on PC gamers. Dennis Fong stated "the biggest pain point for PC gamers is the weakness of the platform as a whole. Everybody has a different kind of PC. There are a million different configurations for playing games. We help gamers get the best experience every time they play” and adding "we have reinvented ourselves with a focus on PC gaming". Raptr then teamed up with

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

to promote optimization of games on AMD graphics cards. Raptr also partnered with

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

to provide 'one-click' streaming in their desktop app. In 2015, Raptr announced an end for console support, citing the growing PC market and changes to

and

which created difficulties in updating features. In March 2015, Raptr launched Plays.tv, a gaming video clip sharing service. The service spun off into an independent company in January 2017. On October 12, 2016,

discontinued the AMD Gaming Evolved App developed with the Raptr team, ending their collaboration. However, the software is still available for download. On April 4, 2017, it was announced that the Raptr rewards service would be closed on the 30th of that month, because the partnership with AMD was over. Since July 2017, the Raptr app was having problems with the access process, which alerted several users. The support team said that the problem was solved, but users still experienced issues a month after the response. Around the same time, all of Raptr's social accounts were closed except their Twitch account. In the same year, on September 1, an announcement was posted on the site stating that it would be shutting down on September 30, 2017. However, users were still able to download their tracked time before that date. In July 2018, only a "Goodbye Raptr" page was left on the site, and this was finally removed in November of that year.

References

External links

* {{Official website, 1=http://raptr.com American social networking websites Defunct social networking services 2007 establishments in California

Software

See also

References

External links