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iPhone social networkers weigh in on Game Center

The future of OpenFeint, Plus+ and Scoreloop discussed

iPhone social networkers weigh in on Game Center
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One of the biggest surprises at the iPhone 4.0 OS press conference yesterday was the announcement of Game Center. Acting as a centralised hub for all iPhone games, Game Center matches up players, offers a unified username and friends list, awards achievements and hosts leaderboards.

But while gamers should be excited, social services like Plus+, OpenFeint and Scoreloop could be hit hard by the announcement. Their friend list, achievements and leaderboard set-ups will be effectively steamrolled by Apple's centralised hub, which at first glance might make them seem dead in the water.

Our sister site PocketGamer.biz has been interviewing some top iPhone social service providers as they weigh in on Apple's answer to Xbox Live, Game Center.

Developers that have picked through the 4.0 OS release may have found a loophole to keep these social game technologies relevant and alive. While the Game Center tool will help gamers find each other through friends lists and matchmaking, the actual hosting of the game is dumped on the developer.

This creates a significant opportunity for services like OpenFeint, who have spent big on online infrastructure, to offer their services to multiplayer games. As most small-time iPhone developers don't have the resources to host multiplayer games, third-party companies like Plus+ will still be irreplaceable.

But that's not the only way that these companies will maintain their businesses.

Simon Jeffery from Ngmoco, who owns Plus+, said, "Ngmoco has anticipated this move from Apple for some time, and is happy to see a cleaner developer and consumer experience on the horizon." The company has pre-empted Apple's strike by shifting its strategy to "empowering monetisation and discoverability mechanisms for the development community."

Scoreloop echos that sentiment, with CEO Marc Gumpinger saying "with our virtual goods architecture and in-game monetisation, Scoreloop's functionalities go far beyond what was announced today." Scoreloop is also focussed on cross-platform support, and already handles iPhone, Android, Facebook and MySpace.

And OpenFeint, the market leader in iPhone social gaming with 1,500 games and 19 million users under its belt, says the exact same thing as Plus+ and Scoreloop. Game Center will likely kill most of OpenFeint's baseline leaderboard and achievement services, but virtual goods and in-game monetisation will be their new bread and butter.

OpenFeint X, a follow up to the social networking service, features a virtual goods store, detailed analytics, a currency wallet and downloadable game assets.

One word cropped up in interviews with both Scoreloop's Gumpigner and OpenFeint's CEO Jason Citron; 'Zynga'. The social gaming behemoth, known for games like Mafia Wars and Farmville, makes almost its entire revenue from in-game purchases. Gumpinger says Scoreloop's infrastructure "enables any developer to become the next Zynga" and Citron says "the real opportunity is in allowing developers to create the next Zynga."

Game Center, which will be released alongside iPhone OS 4.0 this Summer, will be making huge waves in the waters of Plus+, Scoreloop and OpenFeint, but all three companies are convinced that they will remain relevant and successful.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer