By OpenFeint – a leader in socially-driven games for the iOS platform – is announcing they’re expanding to include Android. With their arrival comes 9,200 developers who have already published thousands of titles alongside OpenFeint’s official SDK, a game discovery platform, and integrated mobile payment solutions.
This is great news for people who’ve become frustrated with the lack of quality games on Android compared to the iPhone and iPad. Some of the bigger names making their way to Android include Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, and more. Other publishers – like Astraware – already have a presence on Android, but this move will help to bring more of their offerings to the platform.
“OpenFeint is leading the charge for game developers on Android – helping to simplify and improve the game discovery and purchase process for players on the platform,” said Adam Flanders, General Manager of Glu, a leading global developer and publisher of smartphone games. “Android is an evolving gaming platform that will greatly benefit from OpenFeint’s innovative online gaming and community technologies and we are pleased to extend our partnership.”
I can’t wait for all of this to officially kick-off. There are some quality games to be had on Android already, but the more we can get moving into the market, the better. Be sure to stop by the OpenFeint website here if you want to learn more and sign up to be notified of future updates. Full press details are straight ahead.
OpenFeint To Bring World’s Largest Mobile Gaming Developer Community To Google’s Android Platform
Mobile Social Games Network’s Expansion to Android will Accompany Titles from Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, And Hudson Entertainment.
Burlingame, CA – July 8, 2010 – OpenFeint, the leading mobile social gaming ecosystem for iOS devices, today announced that its 9,200 member game developer community with thousands of published games will soon have a complete solution to thrive in the Android apps economy. Launching later this summer, the company’s complete solution will include its de facto standard SDK, a game discovery store and mobile payment options. It will also include high quality content from leading publishers Astraware, Digital Chocolate, Glu Mobile, Hudson Soft and independent studios like Distinct Dev (Moron Test), ustwo (Dot Dot Dot), Pik Pok (Flick Kick Football) and RocketCat Games (Hook Champ).
With a strong set of partners at launch, OpenFeint’s ecosystem provides Android users the most compelling way to discover and buy high quality online games. In addition to incorporating Google Checkout and leading community features into its developer SDK, OpenFeint will extend its wildly successful Game Spotlight discovery app to Android. Interested parties can register at www.openfeint.com/developers/android for details as they emerge.
At the same time, OpenFeint continues to invest in and expand its efforts on Apple’s iOS devices and maintains the largest mobile social gaming ecosystem on that platform with over 28 million users and a presence in over 2,200 live games.
“OpenFeint is leading the charge for game developers on Android – helping to simplify and improve the game discovery and purchase process for players on the platform,” said Adam Flanders, General Manager of Glu, a leading global developer and publisher of smartphone games. “Android is an evolving gaming platform that will greatly benefit from OpenFeint’s innovative online gaming and community technologies and we are pleased to extend our partnership.”
OpenFeint also announced that its expansion to Android is backed by a recent strategic investment by leading Chinese online gaming company, The9. This marks the path for a significant expansion for the company as it rolls out its cross platform strategy. As always, OpenFeint will remain open source and free for both developers and players.
“OpenFeint continues to demonstrate leadership and innovation in building community technologies which drive considerable discovery and monetization for publishers,” said Jason Loia, COO of Digital Chocolate, one of the industry’s most highly-rated publishers of mobile and social games. “We are excited about their entry into the Android ecosystem and we look forward to partnering with them to bring the best gaming experience to the Android platform.”
With over 160,000 Android powered devices shipping daily, Google’s mobile platform is growing rapidly and leading game developers recognize the tremendous opportunity to bring quality content to the platform.
“This is a big step for OpenFeint and an even bigger step for Android as it becomes a serious mobile gaming platform,” said Jonathan Goldberg, Analyst at Deutsche Bank Equity Research. “OpenFeint ushered in mobile online gaming for iOS devices and we think they’ll lead the revolution on Android.”
OpenFeint also re-affirmed its continued commitment to the Apple iOS device community where thousands of games are in development and several games are approved in the App Store daily with OpenFeint enablement.
“The explosion in mobile online gaming is a phenomenon that affects all members of the mobile ecosystem – from OS developers and OEMs to game developers and players,” said Peter Relan, Executive Chairman of Aurora Feint. “Online games are meant to be played with all of your friends – regardless of mobile operating system. We’ve decided to expand to Android with these mobile gaming giants because all smartphone owners deserve high quality, easy to find games.”
About Aurora Feint, Inc:
Aurora Feint Inc’s software development kit, OpenFeint, allows game publishers to implement services which enable mobile social gaming. With over 28 million registered users and a presence on over 2,200 games, OpenFeint is the largest mobile social gaming ecosystem for iOS devices and is expanding to Android in late 2010. Aurora Feint is backed by DeNA Inc and The9.
Google and Android are trademarks of Google Inc. Use of these trademarks is subject to Google Permissions.
Apple and iOS are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.
Finally things are starting to look good for android users.
This artical ALMOST convinced me to using Google Checkout. What ever happened to carrier billing?
GLU mobile was already making games for the android platform.
Nice! There are some great games out there currently, but for Android to compete with iPhone we need something like this.
Also, Gameloft recently ported some great quality games from the iPhone.
@CTown and others who are afraid of Google Checkout,
Whats the problem with it? I don’t see why so many people are reluctant to use Google Checkout. I don’t understand why this keeps people from buying apps? Support Android’s devs already!
@Drew
I do want to buy games, I really do (and my little brother even more. I searched for Google Checkout and found a lot of information on it. The weird thing is I cannot find good reviews of Google Checkout during this year (reviews are mostly 2007). All the old stuff mostly say Google Checkout is bad.
But you know what, if they are still offering some money (I think $10) for making a new account I will try it out!
I agree with Paul, they already made one of my favorites, Bonsai Blast…I think they made others as well?
@Paul & Spencer I also like Glu’s World Series of Poker game. Great looking UI.
@CTown
Wow, I haven’t heard anything bad about it. But in my typical, “it’s from Google it must be good” mentality I dove right in. No complaints yet.
Woohoo!
Google Checkout *is* good. I’ve been using it for years with absolutely no problem whatsoever. It’s like Paypal.
Why wait for OpenFeint when Scoreloop is available today! Take a look at the leading Social Gaming SDK on Android with millions of users here: http://www.Scoreloop.com
8)