GREE Buys OpenFeint: Expect "Faster SDK Updates, Awesome New Products"
by Joe White
April 22, 2011
GREE - a Japanese gaming network - has just purchased OpenFeint for the sum of $104 million.
OpenFeint currently boasts 5,000 games and 75 million users. Even after Apple's Game Center launched on iOS devices, OpenFeint continued to attract new users (around 1.4 million over the Christmas holidays, alone).
Fortunately, GREE isn't planning on shutting OpenFeint down and expanding into the West. Instead, the company is going to pump cash into OpenFeint, keeping the entire OpenFeint team on, and improving the gaming network as we know it.
As outlined in a press release, which hit the Web yesterday:
“We are excited that GREE shares our belief in the OpenFeint network and are ecstatic to partner with a renowned global leader to build a multi-billion dollar business,” says Jason Citron, CEO and founder of OpenFeint. “Together, we will deliver the strongest global ecosystem of gaming networks to our combined 100 million users.”According to Citron, the purchase will lead to "faster SDK updates, awesome new products, and network improvements." All of this sounds good to me. Congratulations to both companies - we'll look forward to seeing these exciting improvements launch in the near future.
