OpenFeint hits Android games this week

After two months of waiting, Android users will be getting the first batch of OpenFeint-enabled games this week.

Among some of the notable launch titles will be Half Brick Studios' Fruit Ninja, MiniSquadron by Supermono, and Must.Eat.Birds by Mediatonic--all of which will feature the same version of the company's social-gaming platform offered on Apple's iOS.

OpenFeint, which can be found in many of the top games on the iOS platform, offers game developers a way to add things like achievements, in-game currency, and intra-network messaging to their titles. More recent versions also add things like cloud-based game save storage and soon cross-platform game invites.

The company announced in July it was expanding beyond Apple's iOS platform and onto Android devices, though it did not offer any indication of what developers were involved or when some of those first titles would be coming. In its initial offering, the service is being integrated into 20 titles due to be released over the course of this month, several of which are, or have been top sellers on iOS devices.

Along with integration into these upcoming titles, OpenFeint is offering an app of its own--similar to what it's done on the iOS. This will put all OpenFeint-enabled games in a directory, as well as highlight the latest entries and the occasional freebie.

Parent company Aurora Feint says more than 37 million users are registered on OpenFeint, up from 19 million just five months ago. The service is built into 3,000 games.

OpenFeint's role as a utility for iOS developers has become something of a hot topic since the introduction of Apple's Game Center, which rolled out to users last week but has been in the hands of developers since the introduction of iOS 4. While OpenFeint, and other game networks like it said they were glad to see Apple add the social network to the core of the iOS operating system, it does duplicate a number of functionalities such as gameplay challenges, leader boards and achievements. The expansion to Google's Android then, where there continues to be no such first-party option, seems like a no brainer.

A full list of launch titles for this month can be found below:

Face Fighter Gold by Appy Entertainment
Touch Racing Nitro by Bravo Game Studios
Symbolism by ChewSoft
Cestos 2: Party Time by ChickenBrick Studios
The Moron Test by DistinctDev
Super KO Boxing 2 by Glu Games Inc.
Mega Jump by Get Set Games
Fruit Ninja by Halfbrick Studios
Bomberman Dojo by Hudson
Must.Eat.Birds by Mediatonic
Solipskier by Mikengreg
Flick Kick Field Goal by PikPok
Flick Kick Football by PikPok
Flick Kick Rugby by PikPok
Tic Tac Toe by Posimotion
Super Slyder by Sandlot Games
MiniSquadron by Supermono
Kamikaze Race by TastyPlay.com
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