Both Firemint and ngmoco:) have solidified their place in the iPhone gaming community as power houses.  While Firemint has only released a few titles, they have been very successful.  ngmoco:) has a strong lineup that continues to expand with sequels to the popular Topple and Rolando coming out this summer.

At the same time, both companies have made an attempt to develop a social network that ties their customers together, allowing them to compare accomplishments, high scores, or issue challenges to each other.  The concept of social gaming is best exemplified by Microsoft’s XBox Live!.  Live! set the standard with the first generation XBox of how a social network based around the guise of gaming could work.  You add friends, see what they are playing, see their achievements, but most importantly be able to play games with them, all in a nice cohesive interface.

It was no surprise that someone would want to emulate this same experience for the iPhone.  In many ways, the iPhone is an even better platform for a social gaming network with a constant internet connection (in theory).  So Firemint and ngmoco:) both released these new platforms and tied them into some recently released titles.  They both work fine.  You can add friends, see achievements, and in some cases issue challenges which is the asynchronous version of playing online.  Lack of true multiplayer aside, their is one problem with both systems.  Their are two of them.

Live! was so successful because it was the only game in town.  Microsoft controls the hardware and told developers, “You want to have your game online, you are going through Live.”  If each developer had its own system then the uniformity of the experience would be lost, we would have 10 accounts for all the different games we play, and it wouldn’t be worth the subscription we pay.  This is the problem with the current situation on the iPhone.  Every developer is creating their own system, requiring users to sign up for their respective service, and only caring about the games they make.  For each game, you have to find your friends and add them to that service.  You can’t challenge someone for a game outside that developers repertoire.

It doesn’t seem likely that anyone is going to cave anytime soon either.  Firemint and ngmoco:) aren’t the only companies creating these networks, but they are getting the lions share of coverage right now, so they could have a significant impact on what happens next.  One major reason preventing any kind of synergy to happen is the possibility of charging to use such a network.  Microsoft uses a subscription model to pull in recurring revenue and has convinced their audience that it is worth it.  Any developer would would love to get their hands on a recurring revenue stream with little overhead.

Will we ever see a unified network that works across all games on the iPhone?  Only if Apple implements it.  Apple could create a system that developers could tie into and feeds off their itunes user database.  However, this seems highly unlikely.  Apple seems to enjoy getting out of the away of developers, except when it comes to rejecting their apps, and letting them fight it out while they make all their money off the hardware.

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