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OpenFeint Acquired by Japanese Gaming Company GREE for $104 Million

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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OpenFeint announced tonight that they have been acquired by Japanese gaming company GREE for $104 million.
GREE, Japan’s leading mobile social gaming platform, today announced its entrance into the global market with the acquisition of OpenFeint's outstanding securities for US $104 million, plus additional capital for accelerated growth of the OpenFeint platform.
Click to expand...
GREE is a popular Japanese social networking service and is said to be the largest social network in Japan with over 25 million users and a market cap of $3 billion. The acquisition brings in OpenFeint's 75 million users across Android and iOS.

OpenFeint began as a two-person iOS gaming company called Aurora Feint. Aurora Feint launched on the first day of the App Store's release with a free game game called Aurora Feint: The Beginning. That game was very well received but they soon branched off to become a social gaming network, providing high score systems, achievements and more. They've attracting thousands of developers including popular games such as Fruit Ninja and Tiny Wings. OpenFeint says they will continue to grow our network while accelerating upgrades with GREE's backing.

Article Link: OpenFeint Acquired by Japanese Gaming Company GREE for $104 Million
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/04/22/openfeint-acquired-by-japanese-gaming-company-gree-for-104-million/
ziggyonice

ziggyonice

macrumors 68020
Mar 12, 2006
2,385
1
Rural America
Game Center could be so much better.

Why is it impossible to find other iOS users?
Why isn't there any Facebook integration?
Why is there no messaging system?
Cross game chat?
Lobbies? More multiplayer support?

Hello...?
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I don’t much care about achievements and social integration, but for those who do, it’s nice that OpenFeint was there! And still is.

I agree about those annoying icon badges... and I’m pretty sure use of the OpenFeint badge was optional, but many games chose to use it because it was actually a selling point that drew (some) some players while browsing the store. So I can see the reason for it, but I’m glad Game Center games don’t do that! (Of course, they have a special icon while shopping the App Store, so they don’t need one tacked on the app.)
 
S

Salacion

macrumors 6502a
Apr 8, 2010
810
0
Game Center has quite a bit to live up to when you look at the features of Openfeint. Here's to hoping we see new implementations when iOS 5 comes out.
 
C

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Sep 19, 2003
7,766
2,553
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

ziggyonice said:
Game Center could be so much better.

Why is it impossible to find other iOS users?
Why isn't there any Facebook integration?
Why is there no messaging system?
Cross game chat?
Lobbies? More multiplayer support?

Hello...?
Click to expand...

Gamecenter is very "1.0". It was only released last Fall. I expect we'll see at least some of those features in iOS 5.
 
B

beebler

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2009
162
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8H7)

Cougarcat said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

ziggyonice said:
Game Center could be so much better.

Why is it impossible to find other iOS users?
Why isn't there any Facebook integration?
Why is there no messaging system?
Cross game chat?
Lobbies? More multiplayer support?

Hello...?
Click to expand...

Gamecenter is very "1.0". It was only released last Fall. I expect we'll see at least some of those features in iOS 5.
Click to expand...

I hope so. There's almost no reason for me to even look at it.
 
B

beebler

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2009
162
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8H7)

Gree has recently got big and it looks like they're making moves. Look out for moves by Mobage if Yahoo doesn't act, Mixi and the like.
 
W

Worf

macrumors regular
Jun 23, 2010
198
8
ziggyonice said:
Game Center could be so much better.

Why is it impossible to find other iOS users?
Why isn't there any Facebook integration?
Why is there no messaging system?
Cross game chat?
Lobbies? More multiplayer support?

Hello...?
Click to expand...

Actually there is cross game chat available to be built in by devs. The feature was added a few months ago and I tested it and it worked flawlessly with another player from somewhere across the country.

I do agree with your sentiments though but I think it's more that the GameCenter app sucks more than anything. There's more than numerous amounts of APIs for devs to take advantage of but :apple: needs to improve the actual apps which is quite dull, slow, and plain boring.
 
NightFox

NightFox

macrumors 68040
May 10, 2005
3,240
4,487
Shropshire, UK
ziggyonice said:
Game Center could be so much better.

Why is it impossible to find other iOS users?
Why isn't there any Facebook integration?
Why is there no messaging system?
Cross game chat?
Lobbies? More multiplayer support?

Hello...?
Click to expand...

And why have my two daughter's iPod Touches, bought a couple of months apart and running the same version of iOS, got different versions of Game Center on them? One shows the original version where it lists you by your alias, the other is the later version that shows the real name.
 
C

caspersoong

macrumors 6502a
Feb 27, 2011
604
30
I really prefer OpenFeint because I can see my achievements offline as well. Useful because there is little wifi here.
 
O

omyard

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2010
137
2
From making a free app to being bought out for $104 million in 4 years. Not bad at all.
 
CJM

CJM

macrumors 68000
May 7, 2005
1,536
1,057
U.K.
Wow, those two are lucky. Aurora Feint was one of the first games I bought on my original iPod Touch.
 
Rodimus Prime

Rodimus Prime

macrumors G4
Oct 9, 2006
10,136
4
vincenz said:
Good time to cash out with Game Center up and running.
Click to expand...

you missed something. Game Center only works on iOS. OpenFeint and others can and do spread across multiple devices this means a game dev has a choice. Be limited only to iOS or go with something else (like OpenFeint) that works across Android, iOS, WP7, WebOS, and then some.

It is a balancing act in what the dev whats to do.
 
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