OpenFeint
OpenFeint was a social platform for mobile games that allowed developers to integrate networking features including achievements, leaderboards, user profiles, friend lists, and chat rooms into iOS and Android applications.[1][2] Launched on February 17, 2009, by Jason Citron, the platform rapidly expanded to support thousands of games and achieved over 120 million registered users, establishing itself as the leading mobile social gaming network prior to the rise of competitors like Apple's Game Center.[1][3] In 2011, Japanese mobile gaming company GREE acquired OpenFeint for $104 million in cash plus additional incentives, aiming to bolster its global social gaming infrastructure.[4] However, GREE discontinued the service on December 14, 2012, migrating users to its proprietary platform and requiring developers to update their integrations, which marked the end of OpenFeint's independent operations.[5] Citron, who later founded the communication platform Discord, highlighted OpenFeint's role in pioneering cross-game social connectivity in the early mobile gaming era.[3]