iPhone to get Game Center network

By Oli Welsh Published 9 April, 2010

Live-style service with OS 4 this summer.

Apple has announced plans to launch an Xbox Live-style gaming network for iPhone and iPod Touch, and later, iPad. The network, called Game Center, will be "previewed" with iPhone OS 4.0 this summer.

The network will offer services to familiar to users of Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Steam: centralised friend tracking, matchmaking, leaderboards and achievements.

The announcement was made at a presentation on OS 4.0 at Apple's California headquarters, reported on by Gamasutra, among others. Game Center will arrive in "preview" form with OS 4.0 in the summer, but no firm release date for the service was given. OS 4.0 will arrive for the iPad in the autumn.

Although no further specifics of Game Center were announced, comments made by Apple's iPhone software chief, Scott Forstall, suggest Apple is unlikely to charge for the service.

"There's no money to be gained or no competitive advantage to be gained from having your own social gaming network," he said. "One of our goals with [Game Center] is to help the viral spread... You can see your friends, your friends can challenge you to a game you don't have and you can immediately download that [game]... And we added gifting in this OS so you can give it to someone you love."

The major new feature of iPhone OS 4.0 is multitasking, allowing more recent devices - iPhone 3GS and third-generation iPod Touch - to run multiple programs at once. You'll also be able to organise your apps into folders, and developers will be able to push advertising into their apps.

Gizmodo has a full liveblog of the event.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Milk #1 2 years ago

    4.0 is sounding nice. It's amazing how many people I know with an iPhone now, so the Game Center should be good. . .

    How much did the last OS cost to upgrade?

  • Xerx3s #2 2 years ago

    Apple seems to feel more and more threatened it seems. No doubt that they will market all of this as something that they pioneered.

  • waggy79 #3 2 years ago

    Having seperate sign ins and achievements for Gameloft Live, Crystal, Open Feint, etc seemed a bit messy to me. One that tracks everything like xbox live is a step forward, if not original.

  • wizlon #4 2 years ago

    Cool, Achievements... I can't wait to compete with my friends over who can get the most achievements from iFart applications and soundboards...

    Microsoft denied Indie games achievements because they feared it would devalue the whole achievement collecting system, they were correct in doing so.

  • Wyrm #5 2 years ago

    £75? You sure? Cost me £5 to update my iPod touch to OS

  • UncleLou #6 2 years ago

    Microsoft denied Indie games achievements because they feared it would devalue the whole achievement collecting system

    O_O

  • EraSerX #7 2 years ago

    £5 is still too much, it should be free

  • CaptainQuint #8 2 years ago

    Wait, I've got a 3rd Gen Touch, so will I have to pay for 4.0?

  • PearOfAnguish #9 2 years ago

    £5 is still too much, it should be free

    This is Apple, though. If Steve Jobs had his way your bank account would be deducted £5 every time you unlocked your iPhone.

    Wait, I've got a 3rd Gen Touch, so will I have to pay for 4.0?

    Probably. They charged iPod owners for firmware last time.
    Edited by 1 at 09/04/10 @ 09:10

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #10 2 years ago

    And hurrah! They've done multitasking correctly, with only a limited number of specific service types that can run in the background.

    Edit: Seriously, the ability to limit what needs to actually run in the background is more useful on a mobile than letting several apps go at the same time. It's what Microsoft are doing with the next WM, too.
    Edited by 1 at 09/04/10 @ 09:41

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #11 2 years ago

    I can't wait to compete with my friends over who can get the most achievements from iFart applications and soundboards...

    You should see the competition that's gone on with Doodle Jump in my Facebook friends list.

    I had previously stated that Xbox Live integration could have been Microsoft's secret weapon in the smartphone marketplace, but now it seems Apple will have an equivalent service on smartphones before even the first Windows Phone Series 7 devices are out.

    Also, it's going to be yet another better online service than Nintendo's.

  • fknetwork #12 2 years ago

    Fantastic news, the iphone/touch has already passed the PSP in terms of gaming marketshare, this will only add to that!

  • UncleLou #13 2 years ago

    The usual nerd suspects sure seem to feel threatened by the iPhone, if the downrating is anything to go by. Always a pleasure to watch, just demonstrates how important the platform has become. :)

  • AhSoul #14 2 years ago

    The updates are free on the iPhone.....

  • UncleLou #15 2 years ago

    If Sony tried charging for their updates I know where I'd tell them to put it.

    Of course - you'd be mad to pay for updates that remove features.

  • GamesConnoisseur #16 2 years ago

    ^^

    lol! That true compared to launch PS3, Sony been whittling it down more than they ve added new features almost!

    IPhone 4.0 I m excited about as about time we get a host of user friendly improvements, we ll see if Games Center is going to works as well with thousands of apps out there plus competing achievements systems.

  • riz23 #17 2 years ago

    This is great news. Many games are attempting a similar solution via facebook or whatever so a centralised place for all games is superb news.

    iPhone firmware updates are free. iPod Touch users have to pay ($10?) which is not great.

  • Mnia786 #18 2 years ago

    Lol multi-tasking for only the latest iphone? Shows just how much apple favour obsolescence - wont let you do it on older devices due to "power constraints". If 150Mhz ARM 7 CPU powered Symbian devices could do it 6 years ago, what the hell stops apple from being able to deploy it in their new devices? They chat shit and punters hop on the band wagon.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #19 2 years ago

    Actually, I think that memory constraints, rather than power constraints are more likely to be the limiting factor with regard to multi-tasking on pre-3GS iPhones. iPhone 3GS has twice as much RAM, and since hardly anyone's made any apps that require it, that RAM has been sitting largely unused.

  • UncleLou #20 2 years ago

    Of course that's how it would appear to you. I don't have a problem with that, I can't stand ignorant fanboy trolls. :)

  • Skurmedel #21 2 years ago

    Ugh, apparently multitasking is a useful feature these days, last time Jobs opened his mouth it was an abomination. I'm not very optimistic about this, I'm already a bit annoyed with the app store. I will eagerly welcome multitasking though, I have to kill Spotify like 15 times a day to do some basic task which is as you can imagine frustrating.
    Edited by 1 at 09/04/10 @ 15:22

  • Mnia786 #22 2 years ago

    Ipod touch 2g has about 65mb of free ram after boot-up, you are telling me thats not enough for multi-tasking? Christ, a Nokia N97 has around 50 mb after bootup (bad design from Nokia there...) and its a work-horse when it comes to multi-tasking.
    Keep your customers on a stick why dont you apple?