williamweber.net

I have a half written post doing a comparison of the various social gaming platforms on the iPhone, and then Apply goes and announced (link via Engadget) Game Center today during their show-and-tell for iPhone OS 4.0 and essentially sounds the death knell for all of them. Because let’s face it, when Apple joins the fray (for good or ill), especially on their own device, everyone else is shit out of luck. With a friends list, leaderboards, achievements and even multiplayer matchmaking they have all of the ingredients that draw users to social gaming networks. Xbox Live is the gold standard in the console space and I can say with relative certainty that Apple will quickly take that crown in the mobile space. OpenFient, Plus+ and Scoreloop will need to do something aboslutely amazing to beat was is essentially going to be built in functionality on all future iPhones.

My advice: quit now, and go sell knit hats or something.