Apple previews Game Center social gaming platform for iPhone OS
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 8th 2010 1:41PM
posted April 8th 2010 1:41PM
Apple just announced Game Center, which is a social gaming network for the iPhone -- it sounds a lot like Xbox Live, actually. It's has a friend system, leaderboards, and achievements -- and we're guessing it'll blow up out of the gate, given how many games are on the platform. It's being previewed in iPhone OS 4 right now, and it'll launch later this summer. We're hunting for more info, we'll let you know!
Make sure to check out the ongoing iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog!
Make sure to check out the ongoing iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog!
@msavwah
So you're betting that Apple, a company with no history in gaming, is going to have a better unified gaming service than Microsoft, a company who made a very successful console and gaming service which will soon be on WP7 phones?
How does it feel having your head inside your ass?
@n8equalsd .. iPhone has 50,000 games. WP7 has 0.
And all WP7 has in terms of gaming is pretty useless XBox Live integration. You can't exactly download games on the XBox and play them on your phone or anything.
@msavwah Live Anywhere was announced in 2006, now who copied who, the idea is MS's idea, and the PSP is an awesome device, enjoy ur $500 tetris player
@taligent 50,000 games that last less then an hour of play, if you can call them games, casual
wait... the iPhone has games??
Serious gaming on the iPhone sucks. The touchscreen approximations of physical controls makes for terrible gaming. There is no tactile feel of where your thumb is on the screen, the buttons have no feel...it is just a lousy substitute for a real game system. That said, the iPhone has excellent graphics and is a perfect platform for games to run on. So, if Apple wants this to be a DS killer, why not give us a sort-of controller docking station so we have a proper stick and buttons? All of this effort on games, but no real means to properly control them...it's a waste, and I think it is due to Apple's stubbornness. I understand how they wanted to be all revolutionary and touchscreen, but it's time to come full circle here and integrate the touchscreen WITH a physical controller. Now that would put all of the handheld systems out of business.
@Pete C Apple just patent game controllers..
Looks like Apples trying to be the best at ever way possible is ridiculous, which is why I'm Anti-Apple. Its too much...
guys dont be fast to judge both company's were working on this os for a while.ms released a preview of theirs first.that doesn't mean they made it first.
@snowrid3r You are right there, but I have a feeling MS started with the idea first, being the success of Xbox Live and PC gaming... It was bound to happen.
Am I the only one thinking that gaming on the iphone/ipod sucks?
- No physical buttons (on screen buttons/dpad are crap let's face it)
- Not a lot of quality games
- Battery drain (I barely make it through the day with my iphone by calling/sms/email, I can't imagine gaming on top of that)
@loginatnine just repeat five times in your head "but it's magical!"
Better?
I think we can all agree that the winning platform will have nothing to do with who does the better implementation of a mobile social gaming network, Microsoft can be praised for their XBox live marketplace and gaming community. I'm sure all the apple fannies who wanted to play a game or two didn't just buy the PS3 because it wasn't an XBox and went with what was best for them as I do believe we are all smart enough and geeky enough to make sensible decisions beyond that mentality.
So Apple is making a mobile social gaming solution for their users. About damn time and good luck to them. Its a step in the right direction and I think we would all like to wish the developers of both the Apple and Windows platforms all the best. The apple is cutting into gaming sales from the Nintendo DS partly because you can get a portable games console and a phone in one, if the battery life holds ofc. This is a logical step regardless of who has done it first.
Yes apple has labeled the icon in windows colour scheme and layout. What that is all about I don't know and it would be sad * looking straight at the IPhone development and design teams with a glaring look* if this was a middle finger to Redmond. Have some respect.
To each his own I say. We always praise apple for the way they have opened new doors and changed the way we see technologies and invented new ones. So we should also be able to do the same to the hard working guys over at Microsoft. Although social gaming existed before XBL, its was never the same after it. Phones existed before the Iphone, but look at us all wanting capacitive touch screens in every new phone we buy.
My 2 cents as they say. Will the question of what social gaming system is my buddy playing on effect the sales of phones like it did the sales of consoles.... I doubt it. But im an Xbox user.. and that XBL on the go is looking pretty sweet right now..
What do you guys think?
Peace
I just couldn't resist not to install the beta sitting on my desktop, I installed some hackintosh goodness yesterday(snow leopard runs great with my gtx260), it's syncing my apps now.
To bad they didn't include the flash player as many of us hoped.
New Flash Games - 2010
http://gamesloop.com/
What happened to this? Where's game center on iPhone 4? I haven't heard even a peep about it since iPhone 4 came out... What's up?
@agentsmitty6 I am wondering the same thing. Hopefully it will be released soon.