Apple said today during its iPhone launch event that its Game Center is a “huge hit” with 67 Million Game Center accounts to date. The iOS developer also is launching a series of upgrades for the service that include friend recommendations, revamped achievements, and profile photos — some useful features, that third-party competitors have long offered. The update will come with the iOS 5 update next week.

Despite the iPhone and iPad’s success in video games, Apple has been slow to get behind its in-house platform app. Game Center didn’t even hit iOS until two years after the launch of the game-friendly iPhone 3G. By that point, mobile game developers like Ngmoco and OpenFeint had already implemented their own mobile games networks that included features Apple is only just announcing today — like friend-finding.

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