Good for indie developers, Game Center will be another barrier for publishers says Scoreloop
While Apple's Game Center social network continues to be tweaked prior to its expected autumnal roll-out, the rise of Android demonstrates that for some companies, it will likely create as many problems as it solves.
Of course, in terms of Apple's ecosystem, Game Center makes complete sense, creating a unified platform that will enable iOS gamers to easily interact with all of their iOS-owning friends.
OS caste system
With mobile gaming starting to go cross-platform in a serious way however, Game Center will be just another obstacle for developers and publishers who want to work across multiple smartphones operating systems.
For example, publisher SGN has just released the first real-time iPhone-Android game with its Skies of Glory aerial shooter. Korean outfit Com2uS has gone one better with as its Homerun Battle 3D baseball game works across iPhone, Android and Samsung's bada phones.
Currently, such companies develop their own multiplayer technology to deal with logging in and match-making, as well as running the actual game logic.
When Game Center launches, their dilemma will be whether to try to hook these systems into Apple's or potentially confuse or alienate iOS gamers by continuing with their own standalone systems.
Joining the dots
Marc Gumpinger, CEO of social gaming company Scoreloop which supports iOS devices and Android, as well as other social and mobile platforms, says the launch of Game Center will mark a divide in terms of the type of mobile developer.
"Indie developers just focused on iPhone will love Game Center. It will cover their entire user base," he says.
"But for the bigger companies, who understand cross-platform games are the future, it's just another technology they have to support. Those companies don't want to limit their player via device type. For them, it's all about social glue."
Indeed, with 50 or so Android games released using Scoreloop's SDK, Gumpinger says developers are finding that audience is more active, and thanks to the slower release schedule, games are more sticky in terms of chart position too.
Helping developers and publishers cover both bases and more in a joined up fashion is the area where technologies such as Scoreloop will now compete.