OS X Mountain Lion Features: Game Center

Apple never said it was getting serious about gaming on iOS but, eventually, it did. So the next natural step was to do that for the Mac as well. And it’s all going down in OS X Mountain Lion, available in late summer.

“Mac gets in on the game,” reads the Game Center marketing page on Apple.com. “The Mac is about to go up against iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch — in a friendly Game Center way. Now it’s a bigger playing field with even more competition.”

OS X Mountain Lion will allow you to create a Game Center account with your Apple ID right on your Mac. You won’t need an iOS device to do it, as is the current requirement.

You’ll be able to spot all your Game Center friends, challenge them to a multiplayer game (or play co-op, depending on the title), even go against people you’ve never met.

Game Center has leaderboards that show how your score ranks against other players’ scores around the world, and it even suggests new games based on the ones you have, or the ones that your friends are playing.

You could say Game Center is like Facebook for video game fans, as it lets you send friend requests to gamers on the Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch all around the world.

You can also assign email addresses to your account, so that others can find you easily.

Best of all, you can compete in cross-platform games like Real Racing 2. For example, you could be playing on your Mac, while your opponents are all on iOS devices, like iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Game Center is just one of many new features in OS X Mountain Lion that have been borrowed from iOS. Visit the related links below for more coverage on the key features in Apple’s upcoming desktop operating system.

Posted in: Preview, Software