GREE to shut down OpenFeint on December 14
Mobile-social gaming powerhouse GREE revealed last Friday that it will shut down the servers for OpenFeint, a social networking platform for mobile it acquired last year.
Developers were given less than a months notice that the social service would be shutting down on December 14 or slightly later. Basically, developers will have to remove any OpenFeint APIs in their games so there’s “no service disruptions or poor player experience.” All data stored on OpenFeint’s services will be lost if its not migrated. GREE recommends all developers using OpenFeint to migrate to the GREE platform, which the company claims that basic integration takes “less than a week.”
In April 2011, GREE acquired OpenFeint for $104 million. GREE’s competitor DeNA which operates the Mobage mobile-social network currently has some of the top grossing apps including Rage of Bahamut and Blood Brothers. DeNA recently reported $627 million in revenue for Q2 2012, its highest ever revenues. GREE, on the other hand, released its Q1 2013 earnings that saw revenues drop for a second straight quarter with $466.7 million in net sales.
November 27th, 2012 at 10:24 am
[...] may be what current gaming social networks need to thrive: Last week Inside Mobile Apps reported GREE is shutting down its OpenFeint social network, while Apple’s lackluster Game Center is threatening to go the way of its recently-killed Ping [...]