The news Apple is deprecating the use of UDIDs for iOS 5 is a situation many advertising, analytics and infrastructure companies - as well as developers and publishers - are now seriously considering.

Few want to discuss the situation openly until the full ramifications are clear. Cross-platform mobile gaming network OpenFeint - which has been aggressively innovating ever since Apple launched Game Center - is the exception, however.

The GREE-owned outfit is taking the industry silence as a selling opportunity, pointing out that using its technology in your games can provide an alternative and potentially better identity - being per user, not per device.

Sign 'em up

It's planning to streamline its tech with a new opt-in single sign-on system that it says will enable developers to identify and track individual gamers who have logged into the system via their OpenFeint universal ID, or OFUID.

This will provide data that can then be used to analyse behaviour across games, as well as improving retention, monetisation and advertising.

"With the deprecation of UDID, social game developers need access to a universal method for identifying and delivering services to their users," said Jason Citron, OpenFeint's CEO.

"Available to 115 million gamers at launch, OFUID will offer that reach and improve on it by giving users a way to share information with game developers, if they so choose."

Incentivised sign up

To further encourage developers to use the system, which will launch in the autumn, OpenFeint will guarantee them 1.5 new installs for every new install of Game Channel, its discovery app, they drive.

"Sign-on with OFUID is incredibly flexible and has been designed to reduce sign up friction for games," said Ethan Fassett, OpenFeint's SVP of Product.

"Developers will be able to make sign-on optional at first launch and can display it later if they choose. Game developers will also be able to incentivise the sign-on process, offering users rewards for signing in or setting up accounts."

Further details will be made available on the OpenFeint developer website.