Evidence of iOS 4.1 Public Release Emerges

A report signaling that Apple has added a multiplayer restriction to Game Center in recent iOS 4.1 betas suggests the company is on track to launch the new software to the general population with its next planned release.

Particularly, the addition of the "Multi Player Games" restriction was spotted in a new Game Center section of the Restrictions screen, under the General page of Settings, AppleInsider points out.

Present in developer builds of iOS 4.1, the new addition coincides with the availability of a new version of the GameKit APIs.

Game Kit includes a beta implementation of Game Center which, according to Apple, provides game developers with a standard way to implement a number of features, such as aliases, leaderboards, achievements, and matchmaking.

Game Center is not present in iOS 4 as of yet, although Apple plans to bundle the service in an upcoming iOS release, the company officially stated.

The Cupertino, California-based Apple recently issued a developer note on Game Center, informing them of the ability to set up metadata for their Game Center Achievements and Leaderboard Categories in iTunes Connect.

The note, posted to the iPhone Dev Center, said: “You can now set up metadata for your Game Center Achievements and Leaderboard Categories in iTunes Connect.”

“Setting up these elements will allow you to test the full capabilities of Game Center for your app in the sandbox environment,” the company added on August 11.

At the time, developers were being urged to note that “Game Center is a developer-only feature available only in iOS SDK 4.0.”

“Use it for testing purposes only to provide feedback as you implement and test Game Center features in your applications,” the company specified in the iTunes Connect Developer Guide, adding that Game Center is not a user feature in iOS 4.0.

As such, iOS programmers are not yet allowed to submit binaries that use the gaming-focused feature.