I seriously hope you joined our iPhone OS 4.0 viewing party because it was blast. One of the biggest news iPhone gaming wise is the company’s introduction to their very own social gaming network, Game Center:

It’s funny how this iPhone is market used to be a sole battleground for OpenFeint and Plus+ but with the introduction of a service coming from Apple itself, it’s looking like one tough battle for both existing social networks to overcome.

What Is Game Center Exactly?

Just like those before it, Game Center lets you compete with other iDevice users through leaderboards, achievements and even a feature Apple calls “Matchmaking”. Matchmaking sounds multiplayer to me which is awesome.

Slow Death?

Look. OpenFeint and Plus+ (and a couple other iPhone social networks) already boast some very impressive features and currently cover ALL of the Game Center features Apple has announced so far.

Game Center also lacks the thousands of users both networks already have but seeing it’s from Apple Apple, it doesn’t sound impossible their network would grab a thousand users in a second.

What Now?

Don’t draw conclusions yet as both ngmoco and OpenFeint have been cornering this market for at least a year. READ: they aren’t going down without a fight. Of course, there might not even be a battle to be bought depending on the quality of Apple’s Game Center.

In the end, the consumers win since you now have three big and respectable companies vying for your attention for YOUR social network of choice. Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next and where each company takes their platform next.

[Images via Gizmodo, Engadget]