Game Center Hits iPhones With The iOS 4.1 Update

iPhone Game Center released today, cleverly hidden as the first and most prominent feature of the new iPhone 4.1 iOS update. Game Center has been put in place to serve as a sort of Xbox Live (or Playstation Network, if you prefer) of the iPhone.

Plugging your cellular telephone into iTunes to download and install the latest update, automatically adds the Game Center application to your phone. Launch the application, read every singly word of the terms of service, confirm your email address, and quickly grab your favorite nickname before somebody else steals it.

Everyone will read all seven pages of the user agreement

Players can now earn achievements, create a friends list, update their status and participate in vicious leaderboard point battles. Games can be launched directly from Game Center, which will be especially useful when your pal Sephiroth98598745987 beats your Angry Birds score by only a few points. No need to jam on that home button, just hit the play button in the top right corner.

It appears like magic

Angry Birds has not yet been confirmed as a Game Center title, and Sephiroth98598745987 is probably way too many characters to be a Game Center nickname. It’s fun to dream, though.

Right now the number of games actually compatible with Game Center is small. The only game I can officially myself confirm, is Flight Control, but more and more games are being added to the service as you read this article.

Some users have reported problems confirming their new account, or adding friends, but no one has reported major crashes or total inaccessibility.

Thanks for the bleak reminder Apple

Game Center is a welcome addition to the iPhone gaming platform. As long as more games become compatible with the service, it could eventually provide an online community experience that neither the DS or the PSP have been able to create. Now if only they could figure out a way to add buttons…

 

UPDATE
Quite a few additional games have popped up with Game Center compatibility. Here’s the current list:

  • Real Racing
  • Flight Control
  • Farmville
  • Zen Bound 2
  • Fieldrunners
  • Isaac Newton’s Gravity
  • Cannon Challenge 2
  • Megaplex Madeness
  • Enigmo 2
  • PAC-MAN
  • Cocoto Magic Circus
  • WordsWorth
  • Nanosaur 2
  • Cro-Mag Rally
  • Adrenaline Golf Online
  • Wordly Wings
  • GraalOnline Classic +
  • Touchgrind