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Apple Introduces Game Center for Leaderboards and Achievements

Thursday April 8, 2010 1:26 pm PDT by Arnold Kim

Image courtesy of Gizmodo

Another major announcement today was Apple's intention to provide a centralized Game Center that offers users a way to track achievements, high scores and offer matchmaking services for online multiplayer. The system sounds similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service which has been very popular.

The move shows that Apple is very serious about iPhone gaming and sees it as a major focus for the platform. Several companies, however, will be impacted by Apple's move. A number of small companies have already established themselves as similar service providers on the iPhone. These include OpenFeint, AGON, and Ngmoco's Plus+ system. The problem with these systems has been the fragmentation requiring players to sign up for multiple services.

Game Center will be part of iPhone OS 4 which is due this summer.
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pubwvj
24 months ago
I rank this a miss. The iPad a hit. Doesn't do anything for me.
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Rychy
24 months ago
I think this is going to be awesome! I wanted it, but kind of surprised it's actually happening.
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itickings
24 months ago
Makes sense considering the constantly increasing gaming focus. Will be interesting to follow and potentially develop for.

Too bad for the existing providers though...
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wlessard
24 months ago
I watched a pod cast the other day about the success a developer had with Ads, it was supposed to be a discussion around iPhone development and experience. I came away quite annoyed that the developer spent so much time talking about revenue from ads instead of the overall design/development/deployment and user feedback. Looking back I can see his point.

Bottom line for me though is if you're going to sell your apps soul to ads, I rather use this iAd idea instead of crappy web based ads (which I hardly ever click myself - ie except MacBundles).
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stagi
24 months ago
It is a bummer for those existing companies. One hard thing about a totally new industry like this is it's constantly changing and will be for awhile.
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Compile 'em all
24 months ago
RIP Open Feint and Plus+ :D.
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justinfreid
24 months ago
Jobs mentioned that it would take a lot to "move the needle" on Apple's stock price.
I think this and iAd will contribute to that move. It portends ads delivered in the middle of movies and television and music (via Lala). Apple is going squeeze as much revenue out of its hardware-software-delivery synergy.
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SilentPanda
24 months ago

It is a bummer for those existing companies. One hard thing about a totally new industry like this is it's constantly changing and will be for awhile.


Yeah.... even if the developers don't like the new game center you can almost guarantee the masses will pester about it almost forcing devs to utilize it. It'd suck to be an employee of one of the social gaming networks today... it'd be like hearing you got laid off via the news...
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ValSalva
24 months ago
Achievements? This is gaming we are talking about? LOL!
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NebulaClash
24 months ago

I think this and iAd will contribute to that move. It portends ads delivered in the middle of movies and television and music (via Lala).


Uh, no, it doesn't. That would be an example of an ad that "sucks," and Steve explicitly said he won't do that. If you pay for a movie or TV show, you've earned the right to avoid ads.
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