As part of it’s promotional efforts surrounding the latest Raptr website functionality, the company is holding a contest called The Summer of Raptr, and they’re giving away over $25,000 worth of gaming related prizes.

Here’s the promo copy I was sent:

Enter to Win All the Hottest Games of E3 in the Summer of Raptr Promotion

Raptr is starting the Summer of Raptr Promotion to celebrate the launch of its new website. In the Summer of Raptr Promotion, users will be able to enter the giveaway promotion for a chance to win over $25,000 worth of prizes including the hottest games, consoles, and gear from E3 2011.
To enter, simply log into your Raptr account and “follow” the eligible topics for a chance to win. New topics will be posted every week from June 2nd to August 31st. Every topic you follow is another chance to WIN, so keep checking back with http://Raptr.com to find more topics to follow and more prizes to win!

Prizes include:
· Grand Prize: One copy of each of the 20 most talked about games of E3 2011 + 3 Consoles
· 1st Place Prize: Custom Built Ultimate Gaming Desktop PC
· Individual Prizes (Over 100 Winners): Multiple prizes around 20 of the hottest games of E3 2011, including Modern Warfare 3, Uncharted 3, Diablo 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Bioshock Infinite, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Rage, Star Wars: The Old Republic, as well as gaming hardware like 3DS, NGP, Alienware PC, Astro Gaming headsets, Logitech, Gunnar shades, and free in-game items!
· Overall, more than $25,000 worth of total prizes

For more information, visit the Summer of Raptr event page at http://raptr.com/summerofraptr.

Speaking of the new Raptr, Dragonchasers is a topic you can follow, if you like. I could use some love over there!

[I'm writing this on Wednesday night and scheduling it to post when the embargo lifts at 9 am tomorrow morning. So I might get some of the launch details wrong!]

I had a chance to get a sneak peak at Raptr’s new website/service. We all know Raptr as a cross-game chat client that also does game tracking, but starting today Raptr also wants to provide you with a kind of personalized gaming news feed.

It’s a little bit like Digg back before Digg sucked, and only for video games. You can share links of the stuff you find interesting, and can up or down vote items other people have shared.

Honestly I’m still figuring out everything the new site can do (I only got in a day ago) and they’re still adding features, but I think it’s got potential. In particular I’m still looking for a feed of things my friends (and only my friends) have shared. If I can’t find it I’ll definitely submit feedback for it.

I’m accessing it at http://beta.raptr.com and I’m assuming that’ll be the URL when it goes into open beta tomorrow, too. If not I’ll try to get back and fix this link!

Now that it’s live, it’s just plain old http://raptr.com

Sorry for such a vague post; I really want to help get the word out, but I’ll be at work when the embargo lifts so won’t be able to do a proper post at that time!