OpenFeint To Developers: We're Not Dead Yet

OpenFeint, a company which many rapidly claimed was dead following Apple's iPhone game center announcement yesterday, has shot back stating that OpenFeint "will also sit on Apple's Game Center social graph". For those less aware of what OpenFeint is, it's a social network within iPhone, iPad, and iTouch games, currently reaching over 19 million users. Now rather than focusing on just the in-games social network, the company is launching the OpenFeint X virtual goods social gaming platform. OpenFeint is now in one of those awkward transitions in which outside players have already marked the company dead, but instead the organization will be forced immediately into a "pivot", something Eric Ries of Startup Lessons Learned emphasizes regularly. It's a shame for OpenFeint, as well as ngmoco, who had developed a similar platform, as Apple in one swoop wiped out years of development effort. We had scheduled Jakob Wilkenson of Aurora Feint to do a demonstration of installing their product within applications at our upcoming Social Developer Summit, but that may be forced to change since the social network aspect of the company's product is no longer as relevant. With large developers like SGN publicly acknowledging their embrace of Apple's new game center (see SGN President Shervin Pishevar's tweet below), it will be difficult to maintain the in-game social network side of things. With 19 million users already registered for OpenFeint, it also emphasizes how massive an opportunity Apple has on its hands. While I'm not completely familiar with the way this new "virtual goods platform" will function, it sounds as though the company has been forced in this direction. How successful the company will be with this latest "pivot" is unknown, but given the company's existing developer relationships, there's no doubt that there's an opportunity to return even stronger than before. What do you think the future holds for OpenFeint?

Social Pro Daily

OpenFeint To Developers: We're Not Dead Yet

Nick O'Neill

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Nick O'Neill