Posts Tagged ‘Game Center’
iPhone OS 4.2 lands: Brings multitasking to iPad, free Find My iPhone service
It’s time to get updating: Apple today rolled out iPhone OS (iOS) 4.2 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, bringing with it some long-awaited new features like multitasking support on the iPad, and a surprise reveal that its “Find My iPhone” device location service is now free.
While recent iPhone and iPod Touch models have since the iOS 4.0 update earlier this year, this update marks the first time the feature — which lets you run apps in the background — is available for the iPad. Other iOS 4.0 updates, like folder support and a unified Mail inbox, are also hitting the iPad for the first time, as well as .
iOS 4.2 is more than just a catch up patch for the iPad. The update also brings new features to iOS devices, including AirPlay, a way to easily stream media from the iOS devices to the Apple TV, and AirPrint, Apple’s new wireless printing standard.
It’s not too surprising that Apple has finally made its “Find My iPhone” service free (it previously required a subscription to Apple’s $99 a year MobileMe service), as similar features are also available on Windows Phone 7 and some Android phones. The service lets you locate your iPhone 4, fourth-generation iPod Touch, or iPad through a web interface, or on a friend’s iOS device. It also lets you lock your device remotely with a passcode and wipe out the device’s data.
Clearly the iPad gets the most benefit from this update, but that’s only because Apple hasn’t issued as many updates for its tablets as it has for other iOS devices. The update comes just in time for the holiday season, and may make the iPad extra appealing to consumers.
The iOS 4.2 update is available for all iPhones except the original 2G version, for the second generation iPod Touch and newer. Just as with the 4.0 update, some features like multitasking are only available on newer devices.
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OpenFeint finds a way to co-exist with Apple’s Game Center for the iPhone
When Apple launched its social platform for iPhone games, it looked like a supporting tool such as the platform was doomed. That’s because OpenFeint, a social game platform built by the startup formerly known as and now called OpenFeint, did much of the same thing as Game Center, socializing games so that users would make friends and play more.
But it turns out that iPhone game developers have not only embraced Apple’s Game Center, which offers features such as leaderboards for games, developers have also continued to use OpenFeint on top of Game Center. That’s because Open Feint has features that the developers can’t live without, said Peter Relan, chairman of Burlingame, Calif.-based OpenFeint, in an interview. Not only is the game platform surviving, it’s thriving.
In essence, OpenFeint and Game Center are both attempts to duplicate Microsoft’s success with Xbox Live, the social online game service that sits on top of the Xbox 360. The iPhone needs its own social platform so that users can play multiplayer games with their friends, discover new games, and recommend games to other players. With Game Center, Apple is trying to build that functionality directly into the iPhone platform, dubbed the iOS. But OpenFeint was there first, and now it is hard to dislodge.
OpenFeint is owned by Relan’s incubator, YouWeb, whose portfolio has a reported value of $1 billion. YouWeb also owns social gaming startup CrowdStar, cross-platform social game firm Sibblingz, and Flash-based iPhone app maker iSwifter., OpenFeint’s value is $400 million, based on an estimate from Relan.
Relan said that more than 300 top iPhone game developers now use both OpenFeint and Apple Game Center in a kind of one-two punch. Filshlabs’ Galaxy on Fire 2, for instance, has become the top paid iPhone app and it uses OpenFeint’s social features and Game Center’s leaderboard service. By using both platforms, developers can maximize how much their games can spread and how much money they can make from them.
“We have successfully moved above the Apple stack,” Relan said, meaning that OpenFeint is a platform that sits on top of Apple’s platform. “We are very pleasantly surprised. The beauty of achieving scale (a lot of momentum) is the market decides. Not you, not me, not Apple. Rumors of Apple Game Center hurting OpenFeint are greatly exaggerated.”
OpenFeint has features that Apple Game Center doesn’t have, including a network save card, action replays, challenges, messaging and developer announcements. With messaging, friends can send messages to each other in real time. And with developer announcements, OpenFeint opens a direct communication channel between the game player and the developer. When a gamer reviews a game, for instance, the developer can respond to it. You can’t do that in Game Center, Relan said.
“We used Game Center and OpenFeint’s social features to push Galaxy on Fire 2 to the top of the Top Grossing charts in iTunes in less than two weeks,” said Michael Schade, chief executive of Fishlabs. “OpenFeint also provides special features that keep hardcore gamers engaged. Using their network save card option our players play Galaxy on Fire 2 on multiple devices without losing progress.”
Relan said, “We have something so fundamental to developers and they refuse to give it up. The fundamental thing we have is a direct channel from the player to the developer.”
Of course, it’s possible that Apple will add more features to Game Center in the future. But OpenFeint has a lot of momentum behind it. Since Game Center launched in April (and ), OpenFeint has more than doubled its user base from 22 million to 50 million users. Those users have activated OpenFeint in more than 125 million game downloads in the past seven months. OpenFeint has 14,000 developers who are making games with the OpenFeint software development kit. There are 3,800 OpenFeint-enabled games, up 119 percent since GameCenter’s launch.
Relan said that games which use OpenFeint have a strong retention rate. The OpenFeint platform is free for developers, but they share revenue with OpenFeint if they use the OpenFeint X platform, which includes virtual currency used to purchase virtual goods in games. About half of its gamers come back to the game at least once a month. OpenFeint’s investors include DeNA, Intel Capital, and The9.
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iPod Touch accounts for 38 percent of iPhone-compatible devices
Using a bit of clever math, app maker and market analyst firm has determined that about 38 percent of all 120 million reported iOS device sales are iPod Touches.
The company got the value by subtracting the 59.6 million iPhones and 3.2 million iPads sold through June (figures presented in Apple’s SEC filings) and the estimated July and August iPad and iPhone sales of 12 million — a combined 74.8M iPads and iPhones sold to date — from the 120 million total iOS devices that have been sold to date. The 120 million figure was announced in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ seemingly annual on Wednesday.
Jobs said the iPod Touch had become the number one mobile gaming platform — above the Nintendo DS and Sony Playstation portable — during the same presentation. Apple in the quarter ending June 26.
It looks to be in an even better position to advance into the portable gaming market with some new hardware. The new iPod Touch boasts Apple’s A4 processor, as well as a gyroscope, and front- and rear-facing camera. Apple will also release iOS 4.1 sometime this week, which brings the Game Center — a multiplayer gaming platform for iOS — live.
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Scoreloop to provide social platform for mobile games on Taiwanese carrier
has scored an interesting deal for its social platform for mobile games. The Munich-based company is announcing today that it will provide a social gaming hub to Taiwanese phone carrier Chunghwa Telecom. That will help Scoreloop’s mobile social game platform reach millions of users in the fast-growing Asian mobile game market.
The deal with Chungwha’s division is the first where Scoreloop is licensing its platform to a mobile carrier, which wants gamers to flock to its mobile gaming site and then stay there because of social networking features that are built into it. Scoreloop provides the social game platform, akin to a white-label technology provider, that Spring House Entertainment can market as its own branded social hub.
“We’re uniting users with one social gaming platform,” said Spring House Entertainment executive vice president Leo Lee. “Scoreloop’s solution surpasses similar initiatives such as Apple’s Game Center both in features and reach, as they let us bring this to users across multiple platforms. We’re thrilled to bring these features to developers and users alike.”
Chungwha’s Spring House Entertainment is the first of a number of potential customers for Scoreloop in the Asian mobile market, said Marc Gumpinger, chief executive of Scoreloop, in an interview. Scoreloop’s platform lets game developers build social features into their games. Those features include leaderboards, multiplayer challenges, and cross promotions. It’s often easier for developers to “socialize” their games with Scoreloop than it is to build the functionality themselves. So many game developers have adopted the Scoreloop platform on the iPhone and Android that the company says it is getting more than 100,000 new players per day.
Game developers wanting their games to be represented in the Spring House Entertainment hub, will have to use Scoreloop’s software development kit, which will be customized for Spring House Entertainment.
“Everyone wants to have a Game Center like Apple,” Gumpinger said. “This relationship is the blueprint for that.”
The whole point is to take the inherent virality of a platform such as Facebook and bring it into social games. The first group of games that will enter Spring House Entertainment’s Taiwan App Market with Scoreloop social features will be from game developers Dreamsky Technology, Boolba Labs and Goodteam Studio. When users play games from those studios, the games will be able to suggest other games in the Scoreloop platform. In this fashion, Scoreloop is attacking the fundamental problem of app discovery: it’s becoming harder and harder to get noticed when there are hundreds of thousands of competing apps. One of the best ways to cut through the noise is through social recommendations. That’s the topic at our upcoming .
Scoreloop has 35 employees and has raised more than $3 million in funding. Rivals include Aurora Feint, Ngmoco, and PapayaMobile. More than 2,500 developers are using Scoreloop’s technology.
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Social-game platform makers: “Welcome, Apple. Seriously.”
On Friday, announced that it would . It’s a place where iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users can go to socialize with the gaming friends and discover new games. That could help make apps more viral, much like Facebook games.
The only trouble is that there were three companies already doing the same thing: , , and . It is quite possible that when Apple launches its own social game platform in the summer with the introduction of version 4 of the iPhone operating system that this elephantine company will squash these mice.
But the mice’s reaction might remind you of the time IBM came out with its own personal computer and Apple saying, “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”
Shervin Pishevar, chairman of iPhone game maker SGN, welcomed Apple’s move because it puts an end to the confusion for users about which third-party social game network to join. Now the default choice can just be Apple. But the third parties aren’t going to surrender just like that. They’re going to dance around the elephant.
Jason Citron, chief executive of Aurora Feint, said in an interview today that his company’s OpenFeint X platform will provide more features on top of what Apple delivers with its basic social features, such as game leaderboards and achievements. Citron said he was able to study the applications programming interface (API) for the Game Center and concluded it only provided the basics. Gamers will still likely want more social features that they can get with OpenFeint X games, which are being used in games that are played by 19 million gamers.
“Apple is a key partner and we are delighted that they have validated the first half of the OpenFeint vision and we can now fulfill the second half: OpenFeint X and Virtual Goods based Social Games,” said Citron, who said his company will continue to invest in OpenFeint.
Simon Jeffery, chief publishing officer at Ngmoco, said, “Game Center is an exciting First Party innovation for the ecosystem that reinforces much of what Plus+ has already accomplished and proven out early in its life cycle. It will effectively clean up the social space on the iPhone, which has become confusing and cluttered to consumers due to the number of social gaming networks vying for attention. Ngmoco has anticipated this move from Apple for some time, and is happy to see a cleaner developer and consumer experience on the horizon.”
Jeffery said that Plus+ has shifted toward being a service, rather than a mere set of social game features. It helps developers monetize their games and get them discovered.
And Marc Gumpinger, chief executive of Munich, Germany-based Scoreloop said that it makes sense for Apple to add social glue to enable a social gaming infrastructure to keep gamers engaged and playing with friends, much as Microsoft did with the Xbox Live online gaming service.
“Apple positions Game Center around basic social connectivity, which represents the base layer of Scoreloop’s infrastructure,” Gumpinger said. “But with its virtual goods architecture and in-game monetization fully in effect, Scoreloop’s functionalities go far beyond what was announced today. Our infrastructure enables any developer to be the next Zynga — and that on the even bigger scale with billions of handsets in the mobile market.”
Gumpinger also said that the mobile market is fragmented and that his own company has expanded to the Android platform, but the Apple Game Center by itself won’t let you interact with friends on other platforms.
Apple clearly made its move because it has been listening to the complaints of game makers, who have been successful with viral games on Facebook but have had a tough time on the iPhone. If Game Center takes off, then Apple could foster a profitable game ecosystem across its different devices.
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Apple’s Game Center for the iPhone/iPad adds a social network for gamers
The big weakness of the iPhone when it comes to gaming has been the lack of a social platform. Facebook games are inherently social and so they spread far faster than iPhone games do, and they consequently make a lot more money for developers.
hopes to catch up on that front with Game Center, a social platform for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. The platform, announced today, and due to be released with version 4.0 of the iPhone OS due out this summer, will give Apple a “social gaming network, said Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone Software, at a press conference today in Cupertino, Calif.
“We do automatic matchmaking,” he said. “We”ll find others with a similar ability and match them against you. You can see how you’re progressing in a game with achievements.”
Slowly, Apple has addressed a lot of the problems related to games, which were a surprise hit application on the original iPhone. Games are now the biggest category on the iPhone and they dominate the bestseller lists. But the game makers have not made as much money as some Facebook game developers like Zynga. But last year, Apple enabled the free-to-play business model on the iPhone with the iPhone 3.0 software. That allows game makers to give away apps for free and then upsell gamers to virtual goods, such as better weapons, inside the game itself.
And now Apple is addressing the social problem. While Facebook apps can naturally spread in an almost automatic fashion among friends, Apple’s games have had to spread by word of mouth, without much automated assistance. With so many apps, the discovery of new games has been like finding a needle in a haystack. With a social network for games, players can now more easily see what their friends are playing.
Yes, it’s a knock-off of online game services such as Xbox Live. But we’ll have to wait and see if it can offer all of the features offered by third-party social platform makers, . Since Apple’s Game Center will be built into every iPhone or iPad, Apple will have big advantages over the likes of Aurora Feint. Other rivals include Ngmoco’s Plus+ and Scoreloop, which also provide achievements and other social features for gamers and their friends. Those companies have some room to pivot, since the Apple’s Game Center only goes live this summer.
In reaction to the announcement, Shervin Pishevar, chairman of iPhone game maker SGN, said, “So cool! We really needed this for the game marketplace to explode! I always said this should only come from Apple. SGN will integrate into all our games as the standard social glue for all our games.”
Apple’s new iAd service will also be a boon for game companies. Up until now, the options for game companies were to sell their games in the AppStore, give away their games and then upsell players to virtual goods via in-app purchases, or use an ad network such as AdMob. Now, with iAd, game companies can integrate ads, and therefore a new source of revenue, right into the game.
As for the number of games on the iPhone, it has now begun to dwarf rival game platforms. “Gaming is extremely popular on the iPhone and iPod touch,” Forstall said. “In fact, we have over 50,000 titles. Let’s look at the competition. If you look at dedicated gaming devices like the PSP and DS, this just blows them out of the water.”
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