Are we heading towards open gaming if not open platforms? Looks like it. Social Gaming Network (SGN) today launched the first game ever where players with Android phones can engage with multiplayers who use iPhones.
The game “The Skies of Glory” is a flight combat game that was launched for the iPhone last fall and is today launched for the Android phones. Players wanting to enjoy multiplayer game experience can connect via Wi-Fi and other wireless modes and play each other in multiplayer dogfights. This has not been possible before until now.
You can now have a bunch of Apple iPhone operating pilots to fight against the Android phones or you can have a mix of both. I am turned on by the idea of iPhone pilots against Android pilots! The Android version requires players to have version 2.0 or higher of the Google’s mobile operating system. Some Android phones include the EVO, NexusOne and Droid.
This kind of cross-platform gaming will help broaden the audience for mobile games over time. It’s more convenient for friends and family to play on different platforms since odds of having the same phone are relatively low.
Social Gaming Network has had more than 18 million downloads of its iPhone and iPod Touch games. It will be interesting to see if Apple itself will support such gaming and not just that this will also test which of the two devices perform better during gaming! It truly is Android vs Apple!