You Log In and Put the Brand New Headset On. Everything is Buzzing. Party & Voice is Live in the Friendly Fire Cafe.

You walk into Friendly Fire on a Tuesday night, choose your favorite PC spot, sit down and log in. What is this? A brand new headset! Oooh, it feels so comfy! But wait, what’s this? You hear some voices already? And you see a lobby chat on the screen? A few people are typing about whether to queue TPP or FPP in PUBG, and one stranger asking in the voice chat if anyone wants to join LoL ARAM with his friend .. well of course you are for a warm up in ARAM before you start grinding some ranked. 

You say two words: "I'm in."

And just like that, you’re invited to a separate party chat, greet the guys and  exchange acc info. Literally like 90 seconds later, you're in a queue with 2 people who you know are about to become your future gaming buddies when you exit the game. This feels good, you think.

That's Party & Voice, the new feature in the Friendly Fire app that went live in every Friendly Fire cafe today.

What it does

The second you log in to a PC, you are in that location's voice lobby. Everyone else who is logged in at that cafe is in the lobby with you. You hear the room. The room hears you. You no longer have to stand up and walk past twenty PCs asking, "Anyone needs one for CS?"

From the lobby, the Friendly Fire app shows you what is actually being played in the cafe right now - every active party, every game, every open seat in a five-stack. You can:

• join a party that already exists, with one click

• create a party for the game you came in to play, and watch the seats fill

• stay in the lobby and just feel the vibe, if that is the kind of evening you want

The moment you join a party, you drop out of the lobby and into your party's private voice channel. Just your squad, just your call. Leave the party, and you are back in the lobby with the rest of the cafe. How neat, right?

Why is it here

The problem we always want to solve is helping new players find people to play with. We don’t want to see the scenario where someone walks in alone, plays solo for two hours, and leaves. And not because they wanted to play solo, but because sometimes the friction of finding people to play with, in a room full of people playing the exact same games, is somehow higher than just queuing into a random lobby online.

So when we add new features, we always think of how to improve the social part of Friendly Fire - where we help solve the hardest friction of all - making new friends at the start.

Party & Voice is the part that makes the social happen on its own.

What it changes on a busy night

Gaming nights stop being a guessing game. You sit down, and you can hear which queue is filling, who needs a sub, and who just lost their fourth and is rage-quitting into the lobby for sympathy. You can jump in mid-evening without standing in the middle of the cafe trying to read the room.

For first-timers and solo travelers — someone walking into a Friendly Fire cafe in a city they don't live in - the lobby is the welcome. They don't have to know anyone. They just have to log in.

Controls, in case you don't want any of that

You can mute yourself. You can leave the lobby and play in silence. You can be in a party and stay muted if you just want to listen. None of this is on by default in a way you can't opt out of - Party & Voice is the experience the cafe leans into, not a setting you have to fight.

How to use it

1. Log in to any PC at a Friendly Fire cafe

2. You are in the location's voice lobby automatically

3. Open the interface to see every active party in the cafe

4. Join one, or hit Create Party, pick a game, set your group size, and wait — the seats fill from the lobby

5. When your party fills, lobby voice goes quiet and party voice takes over
   
   

Party & Voice is live at every Friendly Fire cafe starting today. 

Have a good game and talk to you soon,
Friendly Fire team