iPhone OS 4 Brings Game Center
![iPhone OS 4 Brings Game Center [iPhone Gamers Getting Xbox Live-like Social Network, Leaderborders, Matchmaking Coming]](http://nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/iPhone-Game-Center-watermarkedTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
Gaming is huge on the iPhone, and Apple looks more and more like they’re accepting their place in the mobile gaming space. During the iPhone OS 4 unveil, Apple specifically said that they “blow [Sony and Nintendo] out of the water.” To further add to the functionality of iPhone games, Apple is adding a new social network, dubbed “Game Center”.
To some up Game Center in a nutshell, it’s Xbox Live for iPhones. I’m sure some diehard Apple fans will get upset at the comparison of a Holy Apple Product® to a Microsoft product, but it’s pretty comparable. First off, developers can now add achievements to their game apps via the SDK. Secondly, it will have leaderboards for comparing your high scores against your friends.
Also being added to multiplayer games is matchmaking – you now can be automatically stacked up with a comparably talented stranger or friend for a multiplayer game. You can invite friends to join you in a game too.
A few months ago, gaming analyst Michael Patcher said that Apple, via their App Store, had backed in this powerful position in the gaming industry. It looks like Apple is now going to try to capitalize on that with this interesting new stuff that they’re rolling out.
My first impressions – it adds a tone of seriousness to the iPhone gaming scene. A lot of those $5 games are (to be blunt) cheap and stupid. With an Xbox Live-style back end to give you achievements, matchmaking and leaderboards, I think it legitimatizes the whole App Store gaming section.
Granted, you’ll still be playing flatulence-themed tower defense games, but now you can do it with your buddies and be earning achievements, too.
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This is definitely a big move by Apple. Game Center is going to streamline the user experience significantly, which is always beneficial in building a platform. Social communities such as OpenFeint and Plus+ seemed to be mentioned alongside this Apple announcement due to the redundancy of many of their services, but it seems like the major aspect of “Xbox Live for the iPhone” is being ignored: Multiplayer.
While Z2Live offers many advanced community tools even beyond what Game Center will, we’ve also put heavy emphasis into the multiplayer arena; an area that has been historically ignored by other game communities in the iPhone space. Looking back at the progression of PC and console gaming, we can see that the gravitational pull away from solely single player experiences towards multiplayer is inevitable. While Apple has been a little vague on the extent of their multiplayer involvement, our SDK and backend services are allowing developers to build real-time game sessions today, host them on our servers, and engage in voice chat from device-to-device.
For those developers anxious to check out how multiplayer can change their strategy for gamebuilding, check out z2live.com and play around with the SDK.
How do you get the game center app? I’ve browsed through the app store, and cannot find it.