The iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are about to get their very own version of Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. As part of the new features unveiled today for iPhone OS 4 (but no new hardware was announced, sorry), Apple is this summer launching a feature called Game Center, which adds friend invites, multiplayer matchmaking, achievements, and leader boards to iPhone and iPad games.
iPhone and iPod Touch users will get OS 4 around late June, while iPad users will have to wait until sometime this Fall.
This is such a no-brainer for Apple, it’s a wonder they haven’t done it before now. iTunes offers more than 50,000 game apps, so Apple would be insane not to take this next logical step. It’ll all be done via a user interface that looks the same despite what game you’re playing, and can be accessed in-game without disrupting your progress.
Game Center is just one of seven major new “tentpole” features announced for iPhone OS 4, at an event today helmed by Apple founder Steve Jobs. Other OS 4 tentpoles include long-awaited multitasking capabilities between 3rd-party apps, folders for organizing apps, email enhancements, a new interactive advertising system called “iAd,” and more.
Having watched the coverage of today’s press conference, I’m kind of surprised at how Jobs downplayed the Game Center feature, in light of his obvious enthusiasm for other new stuff; his excitement over iAd was downright palpable. iAd will be a tremendous revenue stream for Apple, but Game Center has the potential to completely revolutionize gaming on the iPhone, increasing the popularity of the platform’s games and improving the overall quality of games available in the App Store.
