Author: openfeintcrew

OpenFeint announced earlier today that we have added GameFeed to our SDK. This is a brand new free to play gaming feature. It is already available for both Android and iOS developers, and it is a social gaming news feed which improves user engagement as it elevates the social activity from OpenFeint’s network in games.

After OpenFeint added GameFeed to our existing integrations, the 24 participants in the beta increased the sessions per user by an average of nearly 25%, and some of them even experienced a growth of approximately 60%. GameFeed improves this because it engages users with social information such as updated player profiles and it gives the developers stronger user communication skills.

According to the CEO and founder of OpenFeint, Jason Citron, the team at OpenFeint is committed to delivering a new generation of social networks with features that are going to help free to play games improve LTV. He added that the sessions per user are a key component of LTV. Moreover, GameFeed will significantly increase the engagement without any additional costs to the developers.

We also announced that the game developers Big Blue Bubble – the ones who made Burn the Rope, Get Set Games – the ones who made Mega Jump, Sibblingz – the ones who published Island Tycoon and PikPok – the ones who made the Flick Kick series will all integrated GameFeed.

The co-founder of Get Set Games, Derek van Vliet stated that since Mega Jump has over 16m downloads, they have tonnes of players who enjoy playing games with one another. They are very excited to see GameFeed help create a more connected community of users.

The OpenFeint-enabled games that have GameFeed already added include:

• Blaze Runner by DES Games
• Chop Chop Ninja by Gamerizon
• Cooties by Imaginary Feet
• Destroy Gunners F by Shade Inc. (iOS and Android)
• Destroy Gunners SP by Shade Inc. (iOS and Android)
• Doodle Grub by PixOwl
• Fingerzilla by Inert Soap
• Fly Control by Invictus Games Ltd.
• Infernus Verse 1 by Motalen (iOS and Android)
• Infernus Verse 2 by Motalen (iOS and Android)
• Island Tycoon by Sibblingz
• Rip Off by ColorBox
• Sentinel 3: Homeworld by Origin8
• Speedy Biker Xtreme by Pirate Monkey Studios
• Stickman Cliff Diving by DjinnWorks
• Super Scratchers by Ankur Nagpal
• The Impossible Test by PixelCube Studios
• Twins Candy by ColorBox
• Woof the Dog by Fishing Cactus
• Zoombie Digger by Crazy Bit

OpenFeint continues to be the world’s biggest mobile social gaming network with over 115m users. Today the company announced that it will launch a single on system for developers of social games to replace UDIDs on iOS. OpenFeint’s single-sign will be available later in the fall, and it will allow developers to onboard users who want to opt in with only a single click. It will also give developers access to OF’s OFUID, which is a universal account system for the company’s cross-platform users.

So if developers use OFUID to create accounts for the users, they will get access to an account system that is already established. This will save them time, which is required to build it in-house. Thus, with access to OpenFeint’s OFUID, by user content, each developer can examine and even analyse the behaviour of every user across the games, which will help improve the app features as well as to better the targeting efforts.

The CEO and founder of OpenFeint, Jason Citron stated that with the deprecation of UDID, the developers of social games will need access to a more universal method of delivering and identifying services to their players. He added that since at its launch UDID will be available to 115m gamers, it will offer that reach, and it will improve it by giving users a brand new way to share information with their game developers if they want to.

But that is not all. OpenFeint also announced a brand new install trade program for the developers who use the sign-on process. We will guarantee developers 1.5 new installations for every new install of the Game Channel, which is an application that users need to enjoy the benefits of a single sign-on. The SVP at OpenFeint, Ethan Fasset stated that sign-on with OFUID is very flexible and it has been designed to decrease sign up friction for games. The developers will have the opportunity to make sign on optional at the initial launch, and it will display it later if they choose to do so. The developers of social games will also have the opportunity to incentivise the sign-on process by offering users rewards if they sign in or set up their accounts.

The largest mobile social network, OpenFeint, has seen massive growth since we were acquired by GREE last year. We managed to hit and even surpass 90m users as well as 6k games across both Android and iOS. So now the organisation is developing the next iteration of its social network, since we seek to add more social games, including Facebook ones. Moreover, as a part of the initiative, OpenFeint named Ethan Fasset as the Senior Vice President as of the product. Fasset is the former Playdom executive producer of the San Francisco studio.

More and more developers are moving to mobile platforms since they are being led by social gaming giants such as Zynga and CrowdStar. OpenFeint’s rapidly growing social network will help developers make a move to mobile.

Since Fasset is now the SVP, he will leverage his free to play gaming experience to increase player engagement through brand new communication features. Moreover, Fasset will drive player acquisition for the game developers with programs and distribution tools.

The CEO of OpenFeint, Jason Citron stated that the team at OF is very excited to bring Ethan into our family since his expertise in social communities and free to play games will drive the product strategy and even shape the network’s evolution. He added that Ethan fully understands social games, the social networks they need in order to be successful as well as the tools that the game developers need to properly monetize and engage their players.

Fassett brings a new level of social expertise to OpenFeint. While he was at Playdom, he managed to drive the product strategy for their studio in San Francisco, and his focus was on the player’s monetization and community engagement. Moreover, since he is an executive producer, he managed to successfully launch Market Street, the retail themed social game, which peaked at one million active users per day.

Fasset stated that game developers are searching for communication tools that are tailored around the one of a kind community needs of the players as well as for an engaged social graph. He added that since OpenFeint is a game-centric social network, it is uniquely positioned to be able to deliver on both and he is very excited to expedite the move of web-based social games into the mobile platforms.

Fasset’s previous workplace was Gaia Online; this was prior to Playdom. He was one of the early innovators in virtual economies and communities and helped launch Gaia’s virtual store for goods as well as the social network apps.