Who will win the social gaming iPhone crown?

Of all the innovations bought to gaming by the current generation of consoles, it’s the always-on connectivity of Xbox Live that arguably stands out as the most influential – so it’s no surprise to see three rival firms battling it out to bring similar functionality to Apple’s touchscreen device.
We already know about the current two contenders – Aurora Feint’s OpenFeint and Ngmoco’s Plus+. The former is already in use in over 100 titles, and the recent move to make it free to all will enhance its credibility no end.
Ngmoco’s service is a little different in that it’s currently not open to others – the growing company is seemingly very confident in its chances of securing leadership in the iPhone games space.



Now there’s a brand new contender – Chillingo’s Crystal. However, unlike Ngmoco (a firm that stands face to face with Chillingo in terms of iPhone brand stature) Crystal will be free for any developer to use. It includes integration with Facebook and Twitter and allows for the creation of profiles, friends and achievements.
“Crystal gives developers and gamers a bigger plus all round,” Chillingo director and co-founder Chris Byatte stated. “It is set to become the de-facto social gaming standard for iPhone and iPod touch.”
Much like the current standards battle going on in the 3D TV market, the key to victory is uniformity – the company which gets more titles on board (and the higher quality the better) stands the best chance of emerging victorious.
And the sooner everyone backs the same horse the sooner the iPhone can develop a meaningful and purchase-driving community – something that will benefit the platform immensely.
Our bet? That Ngmoco will open up its Plus+ platform very shortly.

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