Four Devs Sign Up For OpenFeint X Mobile Virtual Goods Platform

Aurora Feint announced that has partnered with four developers -- Halfbrick Studios, PikPok, Retro Dreamer, and Hypercube -- for the private beta of its OpenFeint X iPhone and iPad virtual goods platform. Currently designed for iOS devices like iPhones and iPads, the OpenFeint platform allows developers to integrate social features into their games, such as online leaderboards, friends lists, chats, and more. Over 2,200 games so far have integrated OpenFeint, reaching some 28 million users. OpenFeint X takes advantage of cloud-based servers to enable companies to add virtual goods to their games. With the platform, developers won't need to build their own infrastructure of servers to offer digital items that players can purchase inside games. The four announced partners plan to release games with virtual goods later this year. Other interested studios can request for more information on OpenFeint X at the mobile platform's official site. “With few good quality virtual goods-based social games available for smart phones, the market already exceeds $168 MM," says Aurora Feint CEO Jason Citron. "We think that this is a tremendous revenue opportunity for game developers." He continues, "OpenFeint X offers game developers the opportunity to enter this market quickly without having to build the internal server expertise required to support scalable social games."