The platform enables developers to put connected features in their games like friend lists, profiles, challenges and high score tables.

ngmoco launched Plus+ in June and has used it for several of its own games, but Freeverse is the first big third-party publisher to join the network. It plans to use Plus+ in its upcoming Warpgate game (pictured), and its existing million-seller Flick Fishing.

"We're confident that Plus+ promises to be the definitive social map iPhone players have been searching for," says Freeverse president Ian Lynch Smith.

A more accurate way of putting it would be to suggest that iPhone games developers have been searching for a definitive answer to the question of which social platform to use.

Plus+ is just one of the many competing for developers' attention - others include OpenFeint, Scoreloop, AGON Online and Crystal. All want to do for iPhone what Xbox Live has done for Microsoft's Xbox consoles.

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Signing Freeverse up is a feather in ngmoco's cap, as it shows that a competitor sees no conflict in its role as both technology provider and publisher.