The idea of gaming with all your friends regardless of which console they use is fairly unusual, even today, but it’s already a reality in the mobile games market.
SGN launched plane combat game Skies of Glory on the iPhone last autumn, and now that the Android version has arrived today, owners of either OS can play against each other in real time. And you can either fight as mixed teams, or even have Apple owners taking on Android fans.
You’ll need to have Android 2.0 or higher, but the interesting thing is the open multiplayer platform framework which supports the different platforms, and also the range of wireless connectivity, including 3G and Wifi.
It’s a really cool and interesting move, and considering SGN and developers Revo Solutions have already come up with 18 million downloads on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s likely to be followed by more companies as mobile gaming continues to evolve.
Maybe the platform wars will finally come to an end if this becomes normal (mobile or console). Or at least the battles will go real-time online!
And why shouldn’t we interact regardless of platform. I can email a Mac user, call anyone on any make of handset, and see tweets, Facebook updates and location check-ins regardless of the technology I’m using. So why have consoles been so resolutely different?