2010 may be remembered for a lot of things, but in my mind it will always be the year that cross-platform gaming gained some real traction. It started a few months back with Valve announcing that Steam users on Mac’s and PC’s would be able to start their game on one platform and finish it on another. Namco quickly followed suit by introducing UniteSDK, their social gaming platform that connects gamers on multiple platforms. Now Gamehouse is getting in on the action, unveiling Gamehouse Fusion earlier today.
2010 may be remembered for a lot of things, but in my mind it will always be the year that cross-platform gaming gained some real traction. It started a few months back with Valve announcing that Steam users on Mac’s and PC’s would be able to start their game on one platform and finish it on another. Namco quickly followed suit by introducing UniteSDK, their social gaming platform that connects gamers on multiple platforms. Now Gamehouse is getting in on the action, unveiling Gamehouse Fusion earlier today.
“GameHouse Fusion is truly a game changing platform, providing consumers access to thousands of great games and a community of millions of other players. It offers our developer partners the opportunity to make all games social – even those not originally designed for social interaction – on virtually any screen,” said John Barbour, president of GameHouse. “With the unmatched set of multi-platform development and distribution assets we have built over time, GameHouse is leading the transformation of digital games to mainstream social entertainment for the masses.”
Developers working within the Gamehouse Fusion framework will be able to a wealth of social features to their games. This includes live-chat, a centralized virtual economy and more. The press release regarding this Fusion’s launch boasts that “the platform drives social connectivity with features including tournaments and trophies, user-created competitions and prizes, leaderboards, broadcast notifications, game recommendations, and other shared experiences. Developer partners will have access to extensive data collection and analytics capabilities to help them better understand player demographic information and behavior and leverage a variety of monetization options including in-game advertising, sponsorships, micro-transactions and licensing programs.”
While not yet fully implemented, gamers and developers can expect to see the Gamehouse Fusion platform spread to the iPhone and Android, other mobile phones, internet-connected televisions and other devices over before the end of 2010. At present, the service is centered around a new games Gamehouse portal on Facebook that offers users the opportunity to play more than 1000 games right in their browser. Partners like PopCap Games, MySpace, Mattel and Comcast are already on board.
“We are excited to take our customers’ gaming experience to the next level by building off the success of our rapidly growing community base,” said Michael Finnerty, vice president and general manager, Comcast.net for Comcast Interactive Media. “GameHouse Fusion will allow our current and future subscribers to access the best-in-class games across all devices and connect with the people that matter the most to them.”
For more information about Gamehouse Fusion, be sure to visit the official website at gamehousefusion.com.
