OpenFeint hits 8M downloads on Android phones

The company also released Tuesday eight new games for the Android platform. The new titles include games such as Jet Car Stunts, Frogger, Bomberman Dojo, Must. Eat. Birds, and Solipskier. Many of these games are already available for the iPhone, and according to Jason Citron, CEO of OpenFeint, already quite popular.

"These games have generated millions of downloads on iOS, so we’re excited to see Android players gobble them up," he stated in the release.

The Burlingame, Ca.-based OpenFeint, which was founded in 2007, has already seen an increase of 1.6 million new players because of the Android addition. With the release of future games, that number is likely to grow. Eros Resmini, VP of Marketing and Developer Relations at OpenFeint said, in a release, that the company has over 300 games in development for Android. That does not include the eight titles that launch today.

OpenFeint is distributing the games, which are made by partner companies such as Konami Digital Entertainment, Mediatonic and Hudson. Other developers that OpenFeint has partnered with include Digital Chocolate, Hudson, Big Pixel, Half Brick, Capcom and Taito.

Game developers have reported significant increases in sales after signing up with OpenFeint. HyperBees, publisher of a game called Speedx 3D reported the title saw a 39% increase in sales after integrating with OpenFeint. Other titles by HyperBees showed a 9% average increase after integration.

The recent addition of Android to the system stems from the belief that, "Cross platform will be essential in the near future. The mobile platform world is not going to be like desktop. There won't be one platform like Windows that is on 90% of the devices.", Mr. Citron told Vator in a recent interview.

Open Feint does have some competition on its hands. Scoreloop, Ngmoco, and PapayaMobile all have similar projects either out now or in the works, and all of them have gotten substantial investments this year. PapayaMobile raised $4 million in June, and Scoreloop raised an undisclosed amount in July. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers backed, Ngmoco was bought by DeNA for about $400 million earlier in October.

OpenFeint raised $3 million in October, bringing its total funding raised to $12 million. Investors in the most recent round included Intel Capital and The9. Investors in the company's previous round include DeNA.

(Image from OpenFeint)