Interview

CEO Ballard reveals the secret sauce of Glu's iPhone success

Our excitement for iPhone is driving better games

CEO Ballard reveals the secret sauce of Glu's iPhone success
"We came from nowhere to somewhere in an incredibly short period of time."

Outgoing Glu CEO Greg Ballard admits satisfaction with the performance of titles including critical darling Glyder and commercially popular Cops & Robbers.

Initially criticised for a late entrance to the iPhone market, Glu has now exerted itself as a serious competitor with a portfolio of well-received titles. Seven Glu games have made it to the overall top 40, 3 of which peaked within the top 10.

That success, however, doesn't mean Glu can rest on its laurels in an extraordinarily fierce market that is constantly changing and demands flexibility.

Constant craving

Ballard contends, "If you stop publishing in this market, you immediately begin to lose market share." In other words, pursuing an aggressive development schedule in which titles are continuously released to the App Store is the only means of securing a healthy cut of the iPhone action.

"It hasn't been the home run for big publishers as was expected," he points out.

Mobile heavyweights like EA Mobile, Gameloft, and Digital Chocolate have seen success tempered by setbacks. Pricing has proved problematic for both EA Mobile and Gameloft, while limited visibility for Digital Chocolate titles and a lack of iPhone exclusives have held the company back from truly standing out.

Indeed, Glu outranked both Gameloft and Digital Chocolate in terms of quality on the App Store for the second quarter of 2009, only narrowly being topped by EA Mobile. Ballard believes that by not flooding the App Store with games, rather releasing a steady stream of high quality titles has enabled Glu to make its mark.

"The secret sauce has been creating our own tools, our own platforms," he explains. "A lot of enthusiasm exists right now at the creative level. We've always had high quality standard, but the excitement behind iPhone is driving better games. Creativity is guiding the development process more than commercial pressure right now."

Keeping it simple

When approached about the possibility of layering Glu games with in-app commerce and third-party networking platforms, Ballard carefully couches his willingness to explore the former while being clear in rejecting the latter. "We're interested in creating an enduring experience with consumers instead of layering content unnecessarily."

Games that would normally receive free updates will continue as such, eliminating the need to fret about unexpected price tags when updating the Transformers Cyber Toy or Glyder.

Ballard doesn't believe that third-party networking platforms like Open Feint and Plus+ bring compelling value to consumers though, making it unlikely Glu would partake in such programs.

At this point Senior Vice President of Global Publishing Jill Braff interjects, "Tapping into Facebook and Twitter is a great way of delivering the same social networking features without the need to layer software and complicate things for the gamer."

Braff continues, explaining the need to reach wider audiences with accessible features and gameplay. In the way that Glu is eager to leverage Facebook and Twitter instead of Open Feint or Plus+ because the former are ubiquitous and familiar, the same goes for Apple's push to advanced features in firmware 3.0.

"It's a curve ball deciding whether to go cutting-edge and embrace 3.0 and lose users who won't upgrade versus sticking with older software (2.2.1) and risk not having that new appeal," she says.

Where's the money?

Braff's analysis has been ringing true as 3.0-only games like Grunts and Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid have been featured by Apple, but gamers haven't been downloading them.

Premium priced Rolando 2 charted in the 30s but isn't in the top 100 while the 99c Grunts is now also outside the top 100, despite a recent update. Instead, complaints lodged against ngmoco forced the company to work quickly to add support for users still on OS 2.2.1 so that Rolando 2 could be played by the vast majority of iPod Touch owners yet to opt into the paid firmware upgrade.

Yet as much as Ballard and Braff enjoy competition, the need for a healthy iPhone market is something that both take seriously.

"Apple has to nourish a vibrant pool of publishers to ensure the platform's lasting success," contends Ballard. Their desire, undoubtedly, is to see Glu swimming at the top of that pool.

Manning our editorial outpost in America, Tracy comes with years of expertise at mashing a keyboard. When he's not out painting the town red, he jets across the home of the brave, covering press events under the Pocket Gamer banner.