Flight app celebrates Australia Day on a high

Image credit: Firemint

The 10-month-old Australian-developed iPhone app Flight Control has reached another milestone, celebrating 2 million downloads.

Developed by Melbourne-based company, Firemint, Flight Control has averaged 6,000 downloads a day since its launch in the iPhone App Store in March last year.

The app is also in line for two prestigious gaming awards, having scored a nomination for casual game of the year at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and a nomination for best handheld game at the Game Developers Choice Awards.

“Both awards are voted on by committees of games industry professionals, and are essentially the Oscars of the games industry,” a Firemint spokesperson told Computerworld. “It's an incredible honour to be selected as a finalist and is proof that Australia can produce world-class games.”

Firemint has tasted success, but the past 12 months have been turbulent for the Australian game development industry. The high Australian dollar has made the market less attractive for US investment and jobs in the sector have been harder to come by.

Firemint, however, believe it is well-poised to take advantage of the market in 2010.

“Last year was a time of great changes for us, moving from a ‘work-for-hire’ model to self-publishing our original games and this insulated us from most of the turbulence affecting the games industry,” the spokesperson said.

“We're working on a number of brand-new games at the moment and we're looking forward to having a fantastic 2010.”

The Flight Control app achieved 1.5 million downloads in September and has also reached the number one paid app position on the iTunes charts in 20 countries, including Australia.

The vehicle driving the game’s development, Apple’s iPhone, recently took out the number one spot in Computerworld’s Top 10 Most Influential for 2009, as having the greatest influence on the ICT industry and community.

Voting in the readers choice awards is still open. Cast your vote now.

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