OpenFeint to close next month, developers must go elsewhere

OpenFeint - the smartphone equivalent of Xbox Live - is to close in December according to current owner GREE. Developers currently using the service in their games will have to look elsewhere for achievement, friends list and leaderboard support. For the record, that's a lot of games.

MCV reports that GREE acquired OpenFeint in 2011 will close it down on December 14th, leaving OpenFeint-powered titles at the mercy of potential technical issues. The most viable solution - GREE has told developers - is for them to ditch OpenFeint and use GREE's own system.

GREE hasn't exactly given developers much time to prepare, given that all altered games will need to be re-submitted through Apple's unpredictable and at times, lengthy process. We'll know more about this sudden move as it happens, but for now it seems like some developers will have to get their skates on to accommodate the change.