Inside Social Games

Games are more fun when played in a social setting, and a human player offers infinitely more competition than any computer ever could. This concept in mainstream gaming is what creators of MMOs and Xbox Live titles bank on, and the users of said applications are playing the same games for months, if not years, after release. Suffice to say, mobile platforms, specifically the iPhone, have followed a similar (though accelerated) history with their games, and are finally moving towards that direction.

As you probably know, SGN launched a suite of sports-themed iPhone titles that turned the iPhone into a Wii-like controller for games like iBowl, iBaseball, and iBasketball. With the success of these games, SGN is now experimenting with live multiplayer games, meaning that anyone who owns the application can synchronously play against their friends (or anyone else that also has it installed).

The most recent change has been to iBasketball which was just recently updated to allow for live multiplayer competition. At the moment,the game only allows you to compete in a free-throw competition and compare scores at the end. However, according to SGN, however, this is only the beginning, and in the next update you will at least be able to see your competitor take their shots in real time.

This is merely the tip of the iceberg though. SGN has more impressive changes coming for some of its other iPhone apps. So far, the biggest known change will be coming to iBowl. This new version, iBowl Live, is actually supposed to let you compete against three other players and watch their bowls each round (picture Wii-Bowling, but on different screens).

SGN has made a number of successful innovations with the iPhone over the past few months with these Wii-like titles. They have certainly seen the boundaries of what they can create, and the fickleness of the demographic to which they cater. Has a major developer finally seen the power and allure of live multiplayer on a mobile platform? Considering how successful such games are on other platforms and the uncanny void that exists on the iPhone, one can only hope.