One big thing that has held iOS gaming back compared to dedicated handheld game systems is a lack of a way to manage save game files. Sure, a great deal of mobile games are fairly disposable experiences that don’t require tracking progress, but plenty of others are full, robust games that can take many hours to complete.
If you’re an app addict like most of us here then chances are you’ll need to play the make-space-on-your-device shuffle from time to time, meaning you might have to delete a hefty game and potentially all the progress you’ve made in it, never to get it back again.
Apple’s iCloud has been a decent solution… when it works, that is. Sadly that seems to be a pretty rare occurrence. Admittedly it’s getting better, but iCloud does not feel reliable enough yet to put my precious, precious game saves in its hands just yet.
Rovio is concerned with this problem as well, and as iMore reports they’re working on their own save game solution to work in their stable of games. Using the new Rovio Account feature, which requires just an email to sign up for, game progress will be uploaded and saved on Rovio’s end and can be transferred across devices, Rovio explains on their blog.
What’s still not clear is just what devices this will work for. Since just about every Rovio game has a separate iPhone and iPad version, will my iPhone Angry Birds progress sync up with Angry Birds HD on the iPad? Will this work cross-platform for Android versions of the game?
I’m sure we’ll find out all the details soon enough. Currently, Rovio Account is available in globally in Rovio’s The Croods (Free) and regionally in Poland and Finland for the original Angry Birds on iOS. The service will roll out gradually to other regions and titles, and I’m actually pretty curious to see how it ends up panning out.
[iMore]
