Apple surprises social gaming scene with Game Center

In every interview I've had with anyone from the iPhone social gaming network companies over the past 12 months, my default question has been, so what happens when Apple does this in the next iPhone OS?

Everyone's laughed it off, talking about how they talk to Apple regularly, perhaps even suggesting that should such a thing happen, they'd be the company Apple bought to make it happen.

Well, now it's happened.

Cut off at the knees?

In the preview of the iPhone 4.0 OS SDK, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed its social gaming platform Game Center.

Including features such as matchmaking, leaderboards, achievements and friends invitations, what's crucial is that these will be available to all iPad, iPhone and iPod touch developers, and hence integrated into all products.

Significant for players will be the unified log-in system, which means you'll be able to hook up with all your friends who play iDevice games without worrying about what their user name is for each networks.

Where this leaves the likes of OpenFeint, Scoreloop, Plus+, Agon Online and Chillingo's Crystal remains less clear however.

Scoreloop is already touting its cross-platform abilities with support for Facebook, MySpace and Android, while Plus+ and OpenFeint (through its OpenFeint X tech) are becoming MMOG platforms, offering many advanced features that won't be covered by Game Center.

Hence, ironically, Game Center might be the best thing that ever happened to these companies, providing them with a unified base layer to build on and the incentive to specialise in other areas.

01 September 2010 Game Center out next week in iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch

13 August 2010 Apple unveils leaderboards and achievements for Game Center

04 August 2010 iOS social unification dream fragmented as Game Center drops support for older devices

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