
OpenFeint Service Shutdown - siculars
http://support.openfeint.com/dev/openfeint-service-shutdown-and-gree-migration/
======
pdenya
I don't play tons of mobile games but OpenFeint has been one of the most
annoying things to deal with in a lot of the games I play. It slows everything
down constantly bothers me with integration popup and adds absolutely nothing
to my experience. It sucks for a lot of games and probably a lot of (less
casual) gamers but I'm glad I won't be dealing with it in games anymore.

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immad
Heyzap (YC'09) is launching leader-boards on Android and iPhone. Still in
alpha but we have some good results, you can check them out here:

<http://developers.heyzap.com/>

Unlike most other leader-board services everyone has a name and most people
have a picture, so you don't see a lot of playerxxxxx scores, and we give you
lots of ways of seeing/challenging your friends. If you have an Android you
can try it out on:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.piratemonk...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.piratemonkeystudios.speedybiker&hl=en)

You could roll your own, the benefit in using us is that a) its easy (< 1
hour). b) it allows you to leverage our user base. c) We are working
aggressively to add new features like challenges

Get in touch if you are interested or have any questions.

~~~
gwillen
Question: What is your revenue model? What is your motivation not to go the
way of the article we were all just reading, reminding us never to trust a
platform because it will shut down and leave us with our thumbs up our asses?

~~~
immad
People use Heyzap to install games, so its a pretty good opportunity to
promote games to them.

We have a sustainable business model and are not too far from profitable with
16 employees.

We also have an API and will make it very easy for developers to download all
the data if they ever want it. Openfeint is unfortunately not allowing that at
all.

~~~
PythonDeveloper
Okay then, why can I scan all your user data without an account or _any_
authentication?

This URL: <http://www.heyzap.com/api/v1/users/search?q=mike>

Allows me to _anonymously_ see numerous (limited by # of results) users
records.

When I choose one from the list and go to this URL:
<http://www.heyzap.com/api/v1/users/mike_midkiff/activity>

I see all of Mike Midkiff's info. All the games he has, WHERE he played (are
you f'in kidding me??????), HOW MUCH he paid, and even his unique ID.

 _hackers_ , wake up. Bad engineering is bad.

Only the developer whose game Mike bought should be able to request his
information, and ONLY relative to that developers game.

Hell. If someone gets mad at him in game, they can use YOUR API to track him
down and beat the crap out of him.

Nice.

~~~
PythonDeveloper
Just admit it's a bad implementation and commit to fix it.

Except with Twitter and Instagram, I need to authenticate to get the
information about WHERE an action occurred, so at least there's a trail.

With your implementation, I can scan all my competitors users with public
profiles (at the very least) and see who's buying what.

If this is a transparency play, then say that and make a stink about it. But
when Mike gets the crap kicked out of him, also step up and cover his medical
bills.

Edit: Okay.. so the location IS truncated, kudos. Why is this an
unauthenticated API?

~~~
what
You sound angry, calm down.

I fail to see your point. I could also just go here
<http://www.heyzap.com/profile/mike_midkiff> and scrape for the same data.

~~~
PythonDeveloper
I am SOOO not angry, just shocked.

HeyZap didn't build the games that power them, the developers did. HeyZap, in
releasing information such as installs, etc., to unauthenticated API calls is
saying "This is HEYZAP's data".

It's not. It's the developers data too.

Without that developers game, you'd have NO data, and each player is a
customer of the developer once they buy the game. They're not just HeyZap's
users, they are paid customers of that developer.

Treat your developers businesses with respect and limit information to the
developer and let them decide if they want to release it.

~~~
MaxGabriel
Hi, just to clarify, we don't have install data or anything from developers,
only public information of what's on the app store, and what users share on
Heyzap. It is the user's right to share this information if they would like
to, in the same way that I can leave a review of an app without the
developer's permission.

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siculars
From the email they sent me:

"Migrating to GREE Platform is easy and a basic integration can take less than
a week of engineering time. In addition, migrating your game to GREE Platform
allows you to keep your user data and player scores. Please note that
migrating to GREE Platform will require you to remove the OpenFeint SDK and
re-submit your game to the appropriate platform."

Three cheers for subcontracted proprietary services!

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nachteilig
For those who don't know the backstory, as I didn't: Openfeint was acquired by
Gree last year for $104 million.

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kanzure
Something doesn't add up. They are claiming a dec14 shutdown. Regular app
approval delay on iOS is maybe one week, but really two during the holiday
season. Let's be generous and say that publishers will take only one week to
implement the new SDK. That only leaves 10 days of wiggle room? Yikes.

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fotbr
From the end-user (very casual gamer) standpoint, good riddance. When it came
out as an a feature of the "upgraded" AuroraFeint, I chucked the game I spent
most of my gaming time playing, and have since avoided everything that used
it, regardless of how nice the game may have looked.

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simarpreet007
Yes, I don't want those AWESOME features! Thank you.

------
feint
Finally! I get my name back.

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Ologn
FTW ( <http://www.ftw.co> ) is an alternative which is in the same space. I
did some work for them on the Android side of things.

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atmanrising
One of their competitors in the Android space is having a very good week :)

<http://swarmconnect.com/openfeint_shutdown>

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cubicle67
It's a shame really, as OpenFeint was developed initially for Aurora Feint†, a
very nice iPhone puzzle game and one of the very first iPhone games. It was
free, and it seems OpenFeint was an effort to make money for the devs

† <http://www.appsafari.com/games/5330/aurora-feint-app/>

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PythonDeveloper
Perfect example of why you should roll your own platform libraries, or at
least try to use an open source engine that allows you to control the servers.

All those users just lost faith in yet another service, and all these guys are
doing is saying "Hey, we failed you as a SAAS vendor, but we made $100
million, so lube up and try GREE because they need to [overcharge you
voraciously to] recoup their investment.

You'd think the geniuses in the game industry could put their collective [self
acclaimed] intellects together to come up with a platform agnostic approach to
these common issues, and open source it for the betterment of the customer.

Oh, yeah... the... customer. Oops.

>>>>>>>>>>> UPDATE <<<<<<<<<<

OOH.. and it gets better... From GREE's agreement, paraphrased:

ARTICLE 5: Virtual Currency; Revenue Sharing

We've created our own currencies, not unlike BitCoin, called J-Coins and
G-Coins. We reserve the right to change the ratios to capture more revenue,
but right now you should just trust us that we're being honest.

Customers will pay US, not you. We'll tell you how much they spent of that
money with you, and then pay you what we think is fair, in our sole
discretion.

Oh yeah, to further confuse the customer, you can't call YOUR currency
anything like ours, and we get to decide what you call it, and if you don't
change it, we don't have to pay you.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Where the f __* do I SIGN UP!!!

~~~
jschuur
I don't think rolling your own, or hosting your own is a feasible option for
indie mobile and social game developers in the current climate short
development cycles and small budgets.

~~~
slashclee
The whole POINT of OpenFeint was basically: Hey, indie game developers! We
know that building and running a game server is really hard and expensive. Why
don't you let us run the servers for you, and you just use our (fairly simple
and easy-to-integrate) SDK to make some calls to set high scores and unlock
achievements?

~~~
PythonDeveloper
Exactly, and they sold out and screwed the indies.

If you think OpenFeint had issues, just try getting your concerns addressed
now that (a) GREE is in Japan, (b) time shifted 13 or so hours ahead of the
US, and (c) works in YEN and uses _at least_ two levels of currency conversion
to compute your revenues.

~~~
slashclee
I actually used to work at OpenFeint (and was there through the GREE
acquisition). This is a sad day for me.

