Due out "later this year," Game Center is a social network platform for games that will allow you to invite friends, do automatic matchmaking, compare yourself to other players via leaderboards, and earn achievements. Think of it as Xbox Live for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users. "We want to make gaming even better on the iPhone, so we're adding a social gaming network," explained Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone Software during Apple's iPhone OS 4 announcement.
The new Game Center platform will be available to developers first so they can presumably integrate the technology into their own games. Brian Akaka, formerly of and now with , sees a lot of potential in the Game Center platform. "As much as the Game Center is about games, it's also about app discovery. This will be the first Apple-created way (besides the iTunes store) for people to discover other apps. If the Gaming Center takes off, I would imagine that it would spread to non-games very quickly, sort of a Yelp for apps."
With each update to its iPhone OS, Apple has addressed shortcomings to its gaming market. iPhone OS 3 allowed apps to have downloadable paid content, and thus compete more directly with viral Facebook games. Developers like have benefited greatly from this business model--most of its games are free to play but include in-app purchases that further the experience.
When the iPhone was first announced two years ago, the possibility that Apple would have launched a gaming platform would have seemed preposterous. Now, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles at the App Store--far more than the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, two mobile gaming platforms from two of gaming's bigger names. The Game Center announcement is an acknowledgement from Apple that the iPhone and iPod touch competes against traditional gaming platforms.
That's a stark contrast to Apple's usual party line, and many are wondering what has changed about Apple's approach to gaming. "I think that they wanted to see the potential for a hit game-platform, and are now looking to invest some resources into beefing it up. In my opinion, Apple was caught a little off-guard by the potential for the device as a gaming platform, and is now playing some catch-up," explains Akaka.