Apple acolytes do try to defend the company at every turn but iPhone 3G owners will have a hard time standing behind the Cupertino-based company today after it was confirmed that it is not including iPhone 3G users in its latest mobile gaming network plans.

Jobs and Co have taken the decision not to offer support for the Apple Game Centre (which is Apple’s Xbox Live-esque project for online gaming) for the iPhone 3G, while the 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch and iPad are all included in the plan.

Apple is billing Game Centre as a “social gaming network” which will let players invite friends, create leader-boards, score achievements and match-make you with players at similar skill levels for online competitive play.

If you’re the owner of an iPhone 3G or a second-generation iPod touch or older, then you are not going to be able to get your teeth into all the fun in the first place though. Fencing off both seems like a woeful idea to us but it seems to be the case.

Engadget and TechRadar commented this morning that iOS game developers that have been playing around with the new 4.1 beta 3 have noticed that Game Centre support is only available for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (and the iPad and newer iPod touches).

So if you do plan on keeping hold of your iPhone 3G for the foreseeable future then you are going to have to keep relying on third-party online play services from the likes of Openfeint, Plus+ and Crystal for the time being.

Hopefully all this is just an oversight, but that’s being very optimisitic.