OpenFeint X bringing social networking to freemium iPhone games
Score goodies for recommending games to friends
Free-to-play games took a turn for the profitable when Apple allowed in-app purchases and microtransactions, and now it seems social gaming network OpenFeint is looking to add a bit of connectivity to these freemium titles.
OpenFeint has around 12 million users already, across 1000 paid iPhone games, and has just put OpenFeint X into beta testing. It will offer features such as a chat system, friends network, and news feed to free-to-play games, along with the microtransactions many such titles already make use of.
This alternative social system will operate in much the same way as Facebook's virtual goods system in its free games, delivering, "the best of Xbox Live and Facebook's App Platform to the iPhone, and extending the multi-billion dollar virtual goods social gaming economy to mobile," according to OpenFeint's Peter Relan.
As well as allowing developers to integrate game-specific currencies, OpenFeint X will also allow users to take part in an incentive program for encouraging their friends to download games and apps.
Social networking can only enhance a game, and coupled with Apple's increased limit on 3G download sizes even the most basic iPhone games should soon be pretty damn fancy.