IUGO's Thomson on merging its VIP service with Game Center

While much of the focus of Apple's Game Center announcement concerned the impact on the current providers of social gaming networks, it will be interesting to see how it integrates with related programs.

One such is Canadian developer IUGO, which has its own friends' service IUGO VIP.

According to its biz dev director Sarah Thomson, Game Center won't have a negative impact. Rather it will enhance it.

"We're excited about the introduction of Apple's new Game Center network. We wish it had done this a year ago," she says.

"Our program offers a loyalty referral system that's quite different to the features of Game Center. We'll most likely find a way to merge and combine the two for our users' convenience."

With the exact details of how Gamer Center will work still to be released - it's not due live until the autumn - the ability of companies to migrate existing services over to it, and build on top of it, is likely to be vital in terms of how useful the Apple-created social platform is in the longterm.

Thomson says there's likely to be a transition period.

"The potential of Game Center for iPhone gaming, and mobile gaming as a whole, is huge but I think it will take some time for people to integrate its use into their everyday mobile habits," she explains.

"It will happen though. A unified social network is the way to go. It's been done before on other platforms and it works. We're glad to see Apple has made gaming a priority for iDevices."

You can find out more about IUGO's VIP program here.