OpenFeint set to close

Mobile gaming social platform OpenFeint has announced that it is shutting down, giving developers just a few short weeks to migrate to Gree.

Launched by Aurora Feint in 2009 and purchased by Japanese company Gree in 2011, the platform's eventual closure was more or less a done deal, with Gree announcing earlier this year that it would be giving developers a full year to migrate to its eponymous rival social platform, Gree.

However, the company has changed its mind, announcing on 16 November that OpenFeint will be closing on 14 December — meaning that developers have had to drop everything to recode their apps to avoid losing all information and unsecured player data.

In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Gree senior vice president of marketing Eros Resmini said that the decision to abruptly close the platform came about because it was continuing to grow, even though the company has more or less stopped doing anything with it.

Unfortunately, despite our encouraging to developers to migrate as soon as possible, many did not take action. In fact, the OpenFeint service has continued to grow at an unmanageable pace over the last six months.

As many of you might know, we've stopped launching new titles on OpenFeint, and the system has been in a "maintenance-only" mode for several months. The combination of these factors means the antiquated OpenFeint servers can't take the anticipated load going into the holiday season, and we don't have the ability to change that without significant investments.

Gree has apologised for the inconvenience, but we doubt that offers much consolation to the scrambling developers. Who hates fun now, OpenFeint?