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OpenKit aiming to fill OpenFeint-sized hole, launches in private beta tomorrow
OpenFeint seed investor Peter Relan is fed up with his former creation's lack of existence -- the open source software once powered the social integration behind many mobile games. After Japanese social gaming giant GREE bought OpenFeint in April 2011 -- primarily to stifle competition with its own, similar service -- the service continued until it was closed this past December. Relan responded in turn, announcing plans for a new, similar service, called "OpenKit," that same month. Tomorrow, that service goes into private beta, with a variety of mobile devs already signed on. The service can be employed across Android and iOS, implementing cloud data storage, leaderboards, achievements, multiplayer functionality, push notifications, and in-app purchases -- essentially exactly what OpenFeint once aimed to provide. Given the open nature of OpenKit, and Apple's already existing Game Center (which serves very similar purposes), we'd say this is gonna be a bigger hit with Android devices than iOS. Whether it gets adopted at all, however, remains to be seen. For now, it's in private beta, and "over 500 developers" have already signed on -- head to the main site if you'd like to take part. And do it quick, as only another 20 developers can get into the beta starting tomorrow. If you do miss out, there'll be more openings in the future, though Relan wouldn't tell us exactly when just yet.
OpenFeint investor Peter Relan reveals plans for OpenKit, open-sourced back-end services
Peter Relan is the founder of the social gaming incubator YouWeb, and he's probably most familiar to us here at TUAW as the main investor in OpenFeint, the huge social gaming network for iOS and other mobile platforms that was later bought by a Japanese company, and just this week is getting shut down for good. Relan's seen what developers are saying and doing about the OpenFeint shutdown (a lot of major games have provided updates this week or last, mostly switching their OpenFeint leaderboards and multiplayer services over to Apple's official Game Center service), and he's convinced there's an opportunity for more solutions to online app developer services like leaderboards, achievements, and in-app purchases. He tells TUAW that he also heard from "an indie developer team" about a month ago, and they've decided to work on a new service called OpenKit. "We are going to build a platform and we're going to solve the problem once and for all." Strangely, Relan declined to let us know just who this indie developer team was or what products they've made in the past. "I'm kind of a broker between the developer community and this indie developers," he said, so he's apparently reticent to let the devs deal with each other directly. But nevertheless, he says this team of devs is hard at work on the service already, and he hopes to have it live as soon as January. Now, it should be clear, says Relan, that OpenKit is not OpenFeint 2. OpenFeint was a closed-off developer service, that provided an API for devs to plug in to, and charged based on the number of users in your game. OpenKit, on the other hand, is going to be designed as a completely open source solution -- Relan relates it to the popular source code distribution system Git. In other words, while using the servers for OpenKit won't necessarily be free (Relan says it will likely be some sort of variable pricing subscription model), the code itself will be completely free and open source, so if developers want to take their code and information and go to another server, they'll be able to do just that. What Relan and his team is planning, he says, is "an open source developer platform that runs in the cloud, and provides all the important services developers need by developers for developers." It would provide OpenFeint-style services, but with open source code that anyone could access, or even help develop. On Game Center, for example, "tomorrow, if a developer wants to contribute a really cool new feature, they can't." That won't be the case on OpenKit. "What we're proposing is an extensible architecture." Some would argue that Apple's Game Center is what killed OpenFeint -- why would developers go with a third-party service when Apple's official service does everything they need? But Relan says he believes developers are still looking for more options. "There's a number of areas where I view Game Center as very important to the iOS platform, but it's clear that even after Game Center, tons of developer came on to OpenFeint and used it. There was something there." Relan also says that OpenKit will likely be designed for both Android and iOS, so it may be a much more viable option for cross-platform apps and games. At this point, there's no code available for OpenKit yet. Relan is doing a quick developer survey on the official OpenKit website, both to collect future possible users of the system, and to gauge developer interest in the various possible features. "We know you like Leaderboards, but what else do you like?" he wants to ask developers. But aside from the survey, Relan says the code is already being built, and he and his team hope to have it ready as soon as January. "These guys are already working insane hours," he says. The original Aurora Feint game that Jason Citron and Danielle Cassley developed and later became OpenFeint was put together in 60 days, he says, and OpenFeint was built off of that in just 45 days. So Relan is hoping that "this one is going to be 45 days. At the end of January, this thing is going to be up. And I have 100% confidence, this team that we have is just as good as teams I've seen." Ambitious, to be sure. It remains to be seen just what developers want out of a platform like this, and especially after they've had to spend time and money removing OpenFeint from their apps, some devs may be even more leery of investing in another third-party social service. But Relan's obviously got experience attracting developers to his fold with OpenFeint, and he's got big ideas about just what OpenKit can be. We'll have to see, come January, just what the team decides to offer game and app developers going forward.
Aurora Feint's Danielle Cassley to return with Avengees
Danielle Cassley is a name we haven't heard in a while. She, along with Jason Citron, was one of the original founders of Aurora Feint, the game that turned into a social gaming service called OpenFeint that was eventually sold off to a Japanese social network (and will soon be closed). Citron was with the service for quite a while, even after the acquisition, but Cassley left soon after OpenFeint's first successes. Now the creator is returning to iOS, with a studio called Red Bird Studios, and a new game called Avengees. There's not much information about the game just yet, other than the trailer below, but Cassley says it's a physics-based puzzle game, where players will play single player levels to then unlock items to use in an asynchronous multiplayer set of battles. The look is fairly unique, but we'll have to wait and see how it all comes together -- the game's set for release in the next few weeks. It's unlikely that a game like this will blow up into a project as big as the one the initial Aurora Feint game became (not to mention that the App Store is a very different place than it was when Aurora Feint first appeared). But even before Aurora Feint became a gigantic social network, it was a solid quality game, so it's good to see Cassley back making a new title.
OpenFeint gaming service closing down December 14
App Store-connected social hub Openfeint isn't going to be around much longer, relinquishing iOS gaming leaderboards to Apple's own offering. Its owner, Gree, picked up the iOS and Android gaming platform back in April 2011 and is now trying to convince developers to bring their titles across to its main social gaming service. The switch-off will occur in mid-December, with "all OpenFeint network calls" being summarily terminated. Gree hopes to transfer willing game devs across to their primary hub in under a week.
Gree closing down OpenFeint on December 14
I believe we've now reached the end of iOS' first generation as a platform -- it's almost every week now that we're hearing about a major startup losing a founder or a big franchise shutting down. This time it's OpenFeint, the social gaming platform started up way back by Jason Citron and Danielle Cassley, that at one point claimed 25 million users, and then was sold to a Japanese social network named Gree for $104 million. Gree has announced that it's finally shutting down the network on December 14, leaving developers who still depend on it in the lurch, and closing a book that makes up the first big chapter of the iOS marketplace. OpenFeint was originally started from a game itself, but it grew into an easily implemented social network that connected the App Store's offerings together, both in terms of user accounts and leaderboards, and in helping developers promote and share their apps with a large group of consumers. Gree is planning to migrate current OpenFeint users to its own social network, but it says that the current OpenFeint API calls will no longer work after December 14, which means any developers who still depend on those calls will be out of luck. Of course, Apple's Game Center service is the official version of OpenFeint, and though Citron and his crew (and later, Gree) fought to try and keep OpenFeint relevant even when Apple introduced its own service, it appears the battle's finally been lost. Citron left the company late last year as well. We'll see if Gree tries to do something to appease devs angry about the short notice on the changeover, but it's much more likely that those devs will just make their own switch to Game Center and be done with third-party services in general. As I said, it's the end of an era for the App Store. Going forward, Game Center reigns supreme.
OpenFeint shutting down December 14 in favor of GREE's service
OpenFeint, a mobile gaming platform that offers an online social hub and achievements system for iOS and Android games, will shut down on December 14. GREE, OpenFeint's parent company since April 2011, is offering options for developers to migrate existing OpenFeint-supported games to the GREE service. Some of the noteworthy OpenFeint-supported games include Tiny Wings, Fruit Ninja and Robot Unicorn Attack.According to OpenFeint's support page, "all OpenFeint network calls will be nonfunctional which may result in service disruptions to your game and a poor player experience" after the plug is pulled on the service in mid-December.Basic GREE platform integration is expected to take no longer than a week for some developers, and the list of changes between the services notes that "there is no asynchronous method associated with the unlocking of achievements for iOS games" on the GREE service.
OpenFeint hires new CEO, Jason Citron leaves
It's the end of an era for one of iOS' biggest ventures -- OpenFeint has hired a new CEO, Naoki Aoyagi, which means company founder Jason Citron is leaving the company to head elsewhere. OpenFeint, you'll remember, has its roots in an iPhone game called Aurora Feint, which Citron developed a few years ago with co-founder Danielle Cassley (who left the company fairly early on). After that early title saw some success, the venture was transformed instead into a free platform for developers to share friends' lists and other social networking features across apps, even before Apple's own Game Center was announced. Despite the introduction of that official service, OpenFeint has remained popular, and has expanded out into Android and elsewhere. The company was bought by Japanese social network GREE earlier this year, and it's from that company that Aoyagi comes (he was the 10th employee), taking over Citron's role. Aoyagi reportedly plans to combine the US operations of both GREE and OpenFeint, so it's unclear what this will all mean for developers using the service now. As for Citron, he confirms on Twitter that it's "time for something new." He and his team at OpenFeint did an incredible job of building up that company and network piece by piece, so it'll be interesting to see what he takes on next, as well as what OpenFeint ends up becoming without its founder.
Frogger Decades leaps into App Store, still going strong after 30 years of being hit by trucks
My, how time flies. Can it really be 30 years since the original Frogger was released into arcades in 1981? To celebrate the anniversary, Konami has unleashed a new version of the game into the App Store known as Frogger Decades. Along with the familiar highway scenes, you'll be treated to new environments such as swamps and islands, along with opportunities to solve puzzles along the way. A classic D-pad controller is built-in for those seeking a slice of nostalgia, but you're also free to hop about using touch input on the screen. The game retails for $2 with versions for the iPhone and iPad, and it supports competitive play via the Open Feint network. We know what we'll be doing tonight. Care to join us?
GREE buys OpenFeint for $104 million
Before Game Center, OpenFeint and similar third-party platforms carried the weight of the iOS platform when it came to social networking in gaming. Even after Game Center debuted with its leaderboards and achievements, OpenFeint still saw plenty of use, including 1.4 million additional users over the Christmas holidays. With more than 5000 OpenFeint games reaching an audience of 75 million users, it's unsurprising that Japanese social network GREE has just purchased OpenFeint for US$104 million. GREE is already a well-established network in Japan, but rather than shutting OpenFeint down and incorporating it into its own brand, the Japanese network is going to pump operating capital into OpenFeint to grow the platform. According to OpenFeint CEO James Citron, "the entire OpenFeint team is staying on," and GREE's investment in the platform will lead to "faster SDK updates, awesome new products, and network improvements," plus greater global distribution of OpenFeint's services. Social networking services like OpenFeint and Game Center are an important part of the draw of gaming on iOS, so it's encouraging to see big investments being made in this area. Congratulations and good luck to the OpenFeint team.
OpenFeint and The9 will stimulate devs to port their games to Android with cold hard cash
Are you a developer seeking the widest and most profitable distribution for your mobile software? The traditional platform for achieving such goals over the past couple of years has been Apple's iOS, but Android's rabid ascendancy has recently turned that into a legitimate question. A question that OpenFeint is looking to sway even further in Google's favor by announcing it will fund the porting of games from "other app stores" to Android with the help of Chinese online game operator The9. The specially selected games will of course get saddled with OpenFeint integration and the whole effort does have the waft of a publicity grab to us, but hey, it's another few pennies thrown into the bottomless well known as "Android gaming." Surely something worthy will eventually come out of it, no? [Thanks, Calvin]
OpenFeint sees giant spike in Christmas users and downloads
Here's some more evidence that the App Store had a really amazing holiday weekend last week. OpenFeint has announced that it saw a 184% spike in new users on Christmas Day last week, the largest single day in the service's history for new users. Over the four days around the holiday, OpenFeint reportedly added more than 1.4 million new users to the service. Downloads were also really high, with 5 million OpenFeint-enabled games downloaded over the holiday weekend. That includes Android games, which saw 73% growth, and iOS games, which spiked by 187% over the weekend. That's a lot of new games and new players. We've heard other evidence already that last weekend was really busy for the App Store. Apple hasn't released any stats so far (and we've got a line in to EA to try and find out if it can share any of its download figures from the weekend), but we can tell you with some certainty that last weekend saw plenty of new traffic for the App Store and its apps.
OpenFeint's promotional app now called Game Channel
Social gaming network OpenFeint has had its own app for a while now, offering up news and information for players playing games with the technology built-in. But the app recently underwent a re-branding of sorts -- it's now called Game Channel (not to be, or possibly to be, confused with Game Center), and is now built around a Groupon-style model. The app has offered up a Free App of the Day for a while now, but in addition to the freebies, it now also has a feature called "Fire Sale," in which players can "vote" for certain games to go on sale. It'll be interesting to see how that works -- one of the biggest issues developers are facing on the App Store is simply getting their app discovered by players, and this seems like yet another outlet for OpenFeint-enabled games to find their customers. The app also helps with discoverability in other ways as well: you can see what your friends are playing, and track leaderboards and all of OpenFeint's other stats right there. It's tough to actually call this an attack on Game Center, since Game Center isn't really in competition -- it's already installed on every mobile iOS device anyway. But Game Channel does look like a little innovation from OpenFeint in terms of getting its apps out there. If you haven't picked up the app now called Game Channel, it's a free download from the App Store.
OpenFeint announces in-app content service, infrastructure to support freemium games
Social gaming network OpenFeint has finally unveiled its OpenFeint X service, which will allow developers on the App Store (and a few other mobile platforms) to add cloud-based microtransaction content to their games on top of Apple's own in-app purchase service. This is apparently a system that lives outside of Apple's own store, and allows developers to quickly and easily add in-app content without having to go through Apple's approval system. If that sounds confusing, it's because the system is still so new -- only a few developers have worked with it so far (though we're supposed to see it running in popular titles like Fruit Ninja soon), and the updates for providing virtual currency and goods aren't out yet. But this is the next step for OpenFeint -- after Apple released Game Center, OpenFeint's plan was to provide even more services on top of the Game Center functionality, and with the rise of freemium apps on the store lately, delivering this content is an important thing for developers to do. To kick off the new service, OpenFeint is holding what its calling a "million dollar challenge" -- the first 100 developers to sign up and use OpenFeint X will be able to earn up to $10,000 without sharing any revenue (which basically means OpenFeint is giving away $1 million of the money it would have made). After that, developers who use the service will enter a revenue sharing plan -- if you're a developer, you can find more details about that on the official website. This won't change things for most end users -- it likely won't matter to you whether you click one of Apple's buttons to make an in-app purchase or use code from another company. But it will be an interesting choice for developers to make. And given what we've heard about the growing revenues from in-app purchases, a service like this is showing up at exactly the right time.
TUAW's Daily App: Cookie Rush
Cookie Rush is an interesting title. The goal is to keep some villagers away from a giant rolling cookie, but instead of guiding them directly, you control them by placing jump arrows in their way -- it's kind of like a group Canabalt where you're controlling the environment rather than the character. Things get frantic quickly. As you go along, you have to dodge gaps and try to get your villagers up to rescue vehicles, there are dogs to dodge, and there are bad guys that you don't want jumping up with the rest of your folks. I like Cookie Rush. It's pretty original (given that the main villain is a gigantic rolling cookie, it pretty much has to be), and it's worth a shot if you like arcade-style platformers. It's too bad there's no free version to try, and if you're on the fence, you might want to wait for a lite version to come along. But OpenFeint achievements and leaderboards add some fun functionality for just US$0.99. If the idea of the gameplay appeals, it's worth a look.
OpenFeint has doubled community since Game Center's launch
When Game Center was first announced way back in April, the first question everyone had was about all of the third-party networks that had already built up in the space. OpenFeint was the biggest of these, and founder Jason Citron had no apparent worries about Apple's advance into social gaming -- he said that OpenFeint would continue to offer features beyond what Game Center did, and that developers would be easily able to use both networks in their apps. A report released last week by OpenFeint says that's exactly what's happened -- the userbase has doubled to a whopping 50 million users since Game Center launched, and games on the network have also increased 119% since Game Center was announced. Those are pretty amazing numbers -- there was a lot of talk earlier this year that Apple would walk into this space and just dominate (and certainly, I've seen a lot of solid Game Center integration since release, and of course because Game Center is automatically installed in iOS, adoption is probably huge), but that hasn't been the case at all. There's definitely room for services like Plus+ and OpenFeint, even with an official network up and running. OpenFeint, as far as I've been told, is also still planning the OpenFeint X service, with more options for in-game microtransactions, so we'll have to see what they're up to next.
Deal documents show Ngmoco's 50 million downloads, $10m losses in 2009
Stuart Dredge of MobileEntertainment did some digging into the paperwork behind the Ngmoco sale, and came back with some interesting figures about the company's financials. Turns out that rumored $403 million purchase price is true -- kind of. The deal includes a $100 million bonus, if Ngmoco keeps its numbers up to certain standards. The actual payment now is $303 million, which consists of $146 million in common stocks, $27 million in DeNA investments, and $128 million cash. That cash payment, Dredge reports, is about a third of DeNA's total cash balance, so this is a significant deal for both companies. Meanwhile, the documents state that Ngmoco has seen 50 million downloads on the App Store as of last month, and has 12 million users on the Plus+ network across 119 games (as a comparison, OpenFeint announced 25 million users this year, although of course that service is spread across many more titles). And perhaps most interesting, Ngmoco is growing, but has spent a lot of money for that growth. In 2008, its revenues were only $484,000, and it lost $2.46 million. 2009 went better on the revenue side, jumping up to $3.16 million, but the company's losses came out to a whopping $10.89 million. Pretty amazing that financials like that led to a sale of $403 million -- both Ngmoco and DeNA must expect a lot from this partnership in the future.
GDC Online 2010: OpenFeint after Game Center
The last time I spoke with the folks at OpenFeint, we were all waiting for the arrival of Apple's official Game Center app and wondering what effect it would have on third-party social networking platforms for App Store apps. Now, of course, Game Center is out. And despite the dire predictions of onlookers, OpenFeint is still rolling right along. The network continues to offer functionality to developers above and beyond what Apple's official solution provides, and it provides cross-platform services even outside of Apple's purview. OpenFeint's VP of Marketing, Eros Resmini, met up with me here on the floor of the Game Developers' Conference (going on this week in Austin) for a quick chat about what he thought of Game Center's launch, how OpenFeint is doing with Apple's official network up and running alongside of it, and what's next for the service and the network. Click "Read More" to read our interview.
OpenFeint now available on Android
[Image Credit: Engadget] Today, Android users can access OpenFeint, a social gaming suite which supports cross-platform communication, leaderboards and achievements for supported games. Aurora Feint, the company behind the tech, is currently working to enable cross-platform voice chat and real-time multiplayer sometime later this year. PocketGamer reports Android users can download several new games supporting the platform right now, including iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad hit, Fruit Ninja, but plans are underway to offer 20 games over the course of the next month. Head past the break for the list of games, including those that are currently available.
OpenFeint announces PlayTime, real-time multiplayer with voice chat for iOS and Android
Game Center is almost out in consumers' hands, but that hasn't stopped the folks at OpenFeint from pushing forward on their unofficial social network for gamers. PlayTime is a newly-announced feature of the third-party social networking software that will allow players on both iOS and Android to play in real-time with each other, and even use voice chat while doing that. OpenFeint is splitting its multiplayer services into two different paths: "Casual" games will use highscores to offer up multiplayer and even co-op challenges, while "Core" games will actually run real-time multiplayer, in conjunction with a system from a company called Exit Games. Sounds interesting -- the new features are being tested by developers right now, and will be available in OpenFeint sometime later on this year. Game Center will definitely make a big splash in iPhone gaming when it gets released next week, but OpenFeint is still planning on sticking around and innovating where even Apple hasn't yet dared to go. iOS game players will be glad to have both around when all is said and done.
OpenFeint PlayTime brings cross-platform multiplayer gaming to iOS, Android
Looks like options for iOS gamers are only expanding. Not only has Apple just announced the new Game Center, but Aurora Feint has just announced that its OpenFeint social network will soon enable interconnectivity between iOS and Android. The service, called OpenFeint PlayTime, will allow multiplayer gameplay between both platforms -- in addition to matchmaking, game servers, and real-time voice chat during gameplay. If you're a developer, and you're interested in adding cross-platform multiplayer to your next game, hit up the source link to apply for the private Beta. And now you'll have to excuse us -- we were in the middle of a rousing game of Bomberman Touch 2.
