Gamers on Apple’s iDevices who want to 
compare scores can do so pretty easily through the company’s GameCenter. But what happens when their friends are playing the same game on an Android phone – or the PC?
OpenFeint is planning to build a bridge to solve the problem. The company has announced the private beta launch for OpenFeint Connect, an API solution that will allow developers to release games on any app store – for any device – and incorporate OpenFeint game data.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris catches up with the 
Tribeca Film Institute’s director Beth Janson as the prestigious film-making body launches its TFI New Media Fund — for projects that wed traditional film-making with interactive projects like video games.]
One of the film world’s most prestigious festivals is taking an interest in the video game space.
The Tribeca Film Institute (a nonprofit group affiliated with the Tribeca Film Festival) and the Ford Foundations’s JustFilms initiative have announced the creation of a new annual grant — the TFI New Media Fund — for projects that wed traditional filmmaking and new media.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris analyzes the sudden 
dissolution of the Guitar Hero music franchise at Activision, with input from multiple financial sector analysts, who discuss how the company has “pretty much driven the franchise into the ground”.]
Players might still be reeling from the news that Activision is pulling the plug on Guitar Hero, but Wall Street is giving the fat lady a standing ovation.
It’s no secret that the franchise has been in considerable decline for the past couple of years. And while it seems like it was only yesterday that the games were pulling in $1 billion, analysts say the publisher made a hard choice that will likely serve it well over the long term.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to 
analysts at M2 and Wedbush Morgan to examine the possible effects on Electronic Arts — and its signature Madden game franchise — of an American football strike.]
Football stadiums across the country might be silent next September – as the prospect of an NFL lockout grows larger by the day – but on the virtual field, the game will still be played.
Electronic Arts will release its 2012 installment of the Madden franchise this year as it has each year since 1988 – but it might be doing so without the marketing force of the league behind it for the first time in the game’s history.
[In exclusive comments made to Gamasutra editor-at-large 
Chris Morris, the executive producer of Conan O’Brien’s talk show discusses how Microsoft tried to woo the comedian to take his show onto Xbox Live – and why it was ultimately too much of “a leap of faith” for the Conan team.]
U.S. talk show host Conan O’Brien has been a familiar face on late-night TV for the past 18 years, and even when he had his nasty falling-out with NBC in early 2010, most people expected he would wind up at another network – which, of course, he did.
But before TBS came calling, Microsoft did its best to entice the comedian to bring his show to Xbox Live to help launch an original content channel on the console. The company and the performer have never addressed the reports of the conversation.
[Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris 
examines PopCap’s potential plans to IPO later this year, quizzing analysts from M2 and Arcadia on the pluses and minuses of a public Plants Vs. Zombies creator.]
The news that PopCap Games is considering a public offering is the stuff that gets the money wonks of the video game industry all atwitter. An indie darling, who leveraged the try-before-you-buy shareware model into multiplatform success? What’s not to love?
While you won’t find people betting against PopCap if the company does decide to make a formal filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that’s not to say every analyst thinks the move is necessarily the right one for the company.
[Gamasutra’s editor at large Chris Morris talks to 
director Kevin Tancharoen on how the genuinely accidental YouTube release of his short spec film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth led to a gig with Warner Bros. making live-action episodes ahead of the new Mortal Kombat game.]
When the live action short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth hit YouTube in March 2010, people started buzzing. The film, starring Michael Jai White and Jeri Ryan, was not only cool to watch, it was reverential towards the classic Midway-originated fighting game series.
Director Kevin Tancharoen had hoped to use it to lobby Warner Bros. to sign him on to steer a reimagined MK film. While he didn’t quite make it to that level, the company has contracted him to direct a series of live-action shorts that will likely lead up to the release of the new Mortal Kombat game in April. Ironically, though, it all started with a mistake.
With $10 million in new venture capital, Playcast 
tells Gamasutra editor-at -large Chris Morris how it’ll compete with cloud gaming services like OnLive indirectly, by providing a standardized service that can be integrated into any number of set-top boxes.
Playcast may not be the most familiar name in the video game world, but it’s one that’s certainly turning the heads of venture capitalists.
The cloud gaming company has raised $10 million in a Series B funding round to help it expand its ongoing rollout of services to telecommunications companies and cable television providers. The company previously raised $2 million in funding in 2009.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime 
touted the 3DS as more than just a 3D gaming device, adding that it’s “mass market ready, right off the bat,” Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris reported from New York.
The morning started a bit awkwardly for Reggie Fils-Aime, but by the end of his presentation, announcing the launch details of the Nintendo 3DS at a Gamasutra-attended press conference in New York, he was firmly in charge.
Walking out to a dead teleprompter, the normally unflappable president and chief operating officer jokingly accused Wedbush game analyst Michael Pachter of having unplugged the monitors.
Kongregate is launching its ‘Kongregate Arcade’ 
app for Android devices. Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris talks to CEO and co-founder Jim Greer about discovering opportunity on that platform.
With its presence already well-established in the Web space, Kongregate is branching out into the world of mobile. The Gamestop-owned game portal on Tuesday announced the launch of the ‘Kongregate Arcade’ app for Android devices.
With an initial library of 300 games, the app represents one of the biggest collection of games on the platform. And Jim Greer, CEO and co-founder of the company, says Kongregate plans to build that number rapidly – conservatively estimating the company will add “dozens” of games per month (versus the 1,500 or so that the desktop client sees in the same amount of time).
Chris Morris: Journalist 