APPLE: Game Center upgraded

Apple has boosted its iOS online gaming service Game Center with a bunch of new additions.

iPhone and iPad owners will be able to purchase and download games directly from Game Center, as well as play turn-based games such as Settlers with others.

Users will also be able to discover friends of friends who play similar titles, get recommendations from them and view their scores. The changes will go live when iOS 5 is released – Apple’s latest operating system.

Speaking at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2011, the firm’s senior VP of iOS Software Scott Forstall said: iOS is the most popular gaming platform on the planet.

There are more than 100,000 game and entertainment titles in the App Store.”

In just nine months we have 50m Game Center users. To put that into perspective, Xbox Live has been around for about eight years and they have around 30m users.”

In-game pop-up notifications are also being altered. Instead of a game pausing when a notification is received, it will be stored in a ‘Notification Center’ which can be accessed later. Users will be able to bring this up by swiping down a narrow panel at the top of the screen.

Source: Engadget