Apple drops Game Center on older tech

It looks as if owners of older Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPhone 3G and all but the most recent iPod Touches are being muscled out of Apple’s new gaming plans.

As part of its reveal of the new iPhone 4 OS in April, Apple unveiled what it calls the Game Center.

Think of it as an Xbox Live for iPhone, a service very much in the vein of current third party offerings such as OpenFeint and Scoreloop that offers a persistent online base for games that saves scores, Achievements and friends lists.

Although iOS4 is now available and the iPhone 4 has been on the market for over a month, we’re yet to see Game Center rolled out into the wild.

Now Engadget reports that the latest iOS 4.1 development software doesn’t include Game Center support for many older phones. iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and recent iPod Touch owners should be OK, but those still using older iterations look set to miss out.