In the next update to the iPhone operating system, iPhone OS 4.0, Apple is introducing a gaming social network called “Game Center” – essentially Xbox Live for iPhone games.
“Game Center is not about Google, since Google doesn’t have a gaming social network. (Yet?) But it sure seems like a shot against Facebook. Want to play Scrabble or compare your scores against your friends? Game Center aims to supplant Facebook for that sort of thing.” – John Gruber on Game Center
One of the things I wish the iPhone could do is have deeper integration with social networking, specifically Facebook and LinkedIn. Both Palm’s WebOS and the BlackBerry have much to offer in this area. Game Center seems like an area that Apple could easily introduce a native Facebook Connect feature, rather than shunning it as Gruber suggests. Allowing users to associate a Facebook profile to their Game Center user account would enable Apple many opportunities to easily extend the reach of Game Center to a user’s wider social network, rather than a close circle of iPhone toting friends. They could also provide game developers with the ability to tap into this social/viral integration and send updates to Facebook, promoting the game and the iPhone gaming platform in general. Features like that would further elevate iPhone gaming over the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, less connected devices.
One reason I doubt Apple will do this is because they want to have complete control over everything, and this social network probably won’t be different. This approach is typical of Apple, but it might ultimately limit the benefits of Game Center, restricting its reach to just your friends that you have explicitly added as “friends” in Game Center. Facebook would allow you to see a lot more people you know on Game Center, including those who you wouldn’t have necessary thought to add when setting up your account. When I used to play games on Facebook, it was always interesting comparing my high scores to random friends that I wouldn’t actually think to invite to connect in the game. Bejeweled on the iPhone already does this to some extent with Facebook Connect, and it is quite interesting, so it would be great to see it available to every game.
Since we probably won’t find each other with Facebook on Game Center when it debuts in the Summer, feel free to add me – my username is “willwnet”…
