Glu set for social gaming expansion

While poking around Glu's corporate site tonight waiting for its Q3 analyst conference call to be archived, I happened upon a pair of intriguing job postings.

The first is for a VP of social gaming. The new role will focus on "games that involve social, connected experiences" for "emerging platforms beyond the carrier-centric business of mobile gaming". It mentions an "18-24 month roadmap of products for multimedia smartphone, online and other connected platforms", and specifically mentions iPhone, web and Facebook. The role will report to Jill Braff, Glu's senior VP of global publishing. Meanwhile, Glu is also recruiting a web-gaming server engineer, whose job will involve "developing server support and frameworks for games on social-network platforms such as Facebook", including integrating this with Glu's existing server tech for mobile games.

It seems 2009 will see Glu moving into the social gaming market. Back in May this year, boss Greg Ballard told PocketGamer.biz that Glu was monitoring the area, but wasn't yet convinced about the business model.

Since then, the growth of Facebook gaming appears to have done the convincing. Ironically, one of the most successful social games companies, Playfish, started life as a bunch of former Glu Europe employees.