It’s all about jet-fighting and flying aircrafts, complete with a variety of armed aircraft that are loaded with missiles and guns. There are radar-guided and heat-seeking missiles, and let’s not forget about the accellorameter, which has become a focal point for many iPhone games but have become signature for those created by SGN.

You can make it social by playing against others via wifi, and Bluetooth, which is a brand new capability for SGN in the iPhone OS 3.0 platform. It broadens the accessibility for multiplayer games over a mobile network, helping further develop the realm of social mobile gaming.

As one of SGN’s first new games built for the new iPhone OS 3.0, F.A.S.T. is able to combine many of the developer’s specialty features as well as the new options, including the Bluetooth integration, that was previously unavailable for game play. As SGN is also heavily involved with the cross-device approach to social gaming, we’re sure to see some interesting integration with mobile and web game play coming from SGN.

But as we see with the new iPhone, the major differences between mobile and PC are becoming more minuscule, especially when it comes to social gaming. It’s an evolution that’s been a long time in the making, and a combination that will greatly help both new and traditional media find a balance between usability, distribution and monetization in the end. SGN is one of the companies at the forefront of this particular trend and has recently brought on a new CTO for accelerated growth.

For SGN in particular, such timing is necessary and quite useful for pushing its own agenda. SGN has been at the forefront of the application and mobile gaming industry, battling it out with other companies like Zynga for total domination. The first mover advantage for leveraging new platforms such as Facebook’s and Apple’s has proven successful for SGN, especially as SGN has been among the first to bridge the gap between computer and mobile apps designed for game play.

So the upcoming, unnamed game from SGN will be the latest in a long string of games, all of which have become increasingly feature-enhanced and social. Thanks to cooperative measures between Facebook and Apple, SGN has an easier time offering a seamless web-to-mobile experience. Making the iPhone games more social has also been a challenge that SGN addressed over the past year, which is an initiative that even Apple hadn’t fully explored at the time.

Both social apps and marketing campaigns are being more deeply explored in the mobile realm–an occurrence that has been expected for several years now. In seeing cross-device and cross-network platform cooperation from the likes of Facebook and Apple, however, the ability to use mobile for pushing out content, apps and advertising is more likely to be effective at this time. With its own network approach of multiple games and the ability to deliver targeted ads across the platforms on which it works, SGN is able to become a heavily utilized channel for mobile and web content and advertising distribution.

That’s quite an undertaking, especially as SGN’s rate of product releases is already faster than what we see from similar platforms. SGN has used rapid releases to become a front-runner on most platforms where its games are present, all of which take advantage of a particular platform’s unique capabilities. Many of SGN’s iPhone games, for example, use the accelorameter, which became a central feature for the device’s overall gaming experience.

Just last week SGN launched its new Mafia game series, which came on the heels of the settlement regarding the MobWars game for the iPhone. Despite seeing such disputes, SGN has continued its growth efforts and was one of the first to successfully implement a network-atop-a-network approach given its method for game delivery through platforms like Facebook. It will likely be a company like SGN that better provides a seamless experience between platforms like the iPhone’s and Facebook’s, and the technology behind SGN will be at the core of this particular initiative as well.

The good thing about this location-based game is that it’s social, which is an important feature that SGN has been incorporating into some of its more recent games. The social aspect of Mafia in particular could really add to the appeal of this game. With social features, players can compete these real-world tasks against local players, or challenge their friends. There’s also the option of playing against other users based on their geographic location around the world.

In adding this social layer, SGN continues to build a user-centric network around its games, broadening the appeal and the usability of each new release it has. Seeing as Apple hasn’t made its mobile devices entirely social on its own accord, third parties with their own network approach have been able to leverage the permeation of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch in order to expand their products, services and advertising.

This is a big step in the right direction for SGN’s iPhone-specific games, as Apple’s platform doesn’t provide an inherent social network for connecting users across various applications, including games. Because of this missing component on Apple’s platform, we’ve been waiting for SGN to release an update that could provide a more social means for interacting with other users on some level.

Playing in a competitive round of mobile video gaming is a great way to encourage interactivity amongst iPhone users and offer an entirely new set of engaging features for end users. As iBowl has also been one of the top free iPhone game downloads since launching in October, layering in social features will likely help this SGN mobile game stay high on the list.

And SGN isn’t slowing down, either. The game developer has full intentions of expanding its gaming empire through mobile games designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With updates or other popular games like iBaseball, iBasketball and SGN Golf, SGN has a pretty good handle on the iPhone gaming market. There’s also an increasing amount of overlap between SGN’s existing applications like (fluff)friends on Facebook that’s making its way to the iPhone, merely enabling SGN’s ability to grow its platform across networks and devices.

With options like Facebook Connect and other platforms, it’s companies like SGN that continue to make cross-device gaming experiences as seamless as possible for end users, increasing SGN’s potential to further corner the gaming market and provide a powerful method of distribution for content and advertising.

Almost any tech company makes its employees sign agreements guaranteeing the company the rights to any intellectual property they produce while employed. Freewebs was no exception. And so, in a claim filed on August 11th in Maryland (where Freewebs, is legally registered) Freewebs and SGN have hit Maestri with a litany of charges, including breach of contract, breach of duty, misappropriation of trade secrets and interference with business relations. If the case goes to court and Maestri loses, he may have to surrender not only the rights to Mob Wars, but all the money he has made from its success, as well.

Today, it was announced that the two parties have settled the dispute for a cash settlement. Dave Maestri gets to keep ownership of the application, but this most definitely has been a costly experience for the developer. Mob Wars continues to be extremely popular, experiencing growth in traffic over the past month after a short decrease.

For SGN, the battle must have been fierce as it would be the company’s largest application if they had obtained ownership of application. For now it appears that the battle over the application is over and both parties can return to business as usual. One clear risk as a result of this settlement is that SGN will create an identical application.

Zynga has already done so and now has more active users than Maestri. Could there be another lawsuit in the pipeline for Maestri?

Playing in the mobile gaming space is most definitely a challenging one as numerous large players have entered and have seen relatively widespread success. As I recently mentioned, a quick glance at the top selling applications on any given day shows over 50 percent tend to be games, frequently more. That’s good news for SGN who has been churning out new iPhone games at a furious pace.

While the iPhone uptake has been great, social networks still provide companies with a larger distribution opportunity. Slide and RockYou for instance both have around 36 million monthly active users, much more than the number of iPhone owners (which is somewhere around 10 million). I’d imagine that Apple will continue to close the gap over the coming months.

What platforms are you developing on? Do you have the resources to build on both?

Are mobile game makers over-doing the apps that require movement mimicking the real sport? Is the mobile market really the best venue for such games, seeing as there are a limited number of places in which most people will feel comfortable “throwing” their phones around in the act of playing basketball?

I’d personally prefer the race car game if I were sitting on the train or in the doctor’s waiting room, while saving iBasketball for the privacy of my own home. So I do wonder if this limits the play time and user retention of movement-games such as iBasketball.

But SGN has also made sure to include some social features for iBasketball, which keeps things interesting. The ability to challenge friends and play against others in real time certainly makes this game more fun and attractive to a wider audience. If you get a chance to check out iBasketball, let us know what you think in the comments below.

You start off the game by pitching either curveballs or fastballs and attempting to strike out 3 batters (as in normal baseball). The pitch appears to be relatively sensitive to the angle of the phone. The one thing that was annoying was that accidentally clicking the button on the side of the phone ended up pushing the application back to the home screen.

Once you finish pitching the ball at insanely fast speeds (I was able to manage pitching at 116 miles per hour), it’s your turn to bat. Batting is pretty straightforward and definitely simple. Just watch the ball come down toward the plate and swing at the appropriate time. While simple, I wasn’t too successful at it. I hit around 6 balls across 3 batters.

It’s definitely interesting to see SGN rolling out one Wii-like game after the other, all of which have so far been at least number one on the chart at some point soon after launch. So far iBaseball has not been a hit but I’m guessing within the next 24 hours we’ll see the application move to the top of the charts. If you want to take a shot at beating my fastball speed, go download the iBaseball application.

While the iPhone has proven to be a revolutionary platform, the applications still lack significant social features. Event SGN’s latest iPhone games aren’t very social but for now that doesn’t matter given that they are already extremely successful. Within a few days SGN’s first game, iGolf, rocketed to the top of the application charts. In just a couple weeks the company would have a second game at the top of the charts: iBowl.

At least one commenter on the iBowl application asked for the release of an iBaseball game. My guess is that they will have a whole suite of Wii-like games before all is said and done. Just a couple months ago things weren’t looking as rosy for the company. There was a lot of chatter about developers leaving the company and it appeared that active usage of the company’s Facebook applications were dropping.

While I wouldn’t say that the company was near its end, I would be willing to say that the company was navigating some extremely choppy seas. No path to success is ever easy though and SGN may have just made it through one of their first serious tests of will. Just this past week Shervin Pishevar posted a note on Facebook that at first glance sounds trippy but after looking is the executive digging deep for inspiration.

The note would also go on to inspire others and while the company is still early in its iPhone history, there is no doubt that they may have just found a better environment to play. While the path to revenue for iPhone applications is a bit more challenging, I have no doubt that SGN will be able to get there quickly. The only thing that I’m left wondering is when will SGN’s social gaming competitors follow suit onto the mobile platforms?