Plenty of game publishers have come unstuck in the mobile market over the past 12 months, and while Glu Mobile hasn't had an easy time, it can now point to some green shoots.

For one thing, it's stemming its quarterly losses and seems to be generating cash flow.

It's announced its new slate of games for the remainder of 2009, which include some innovative titles.

And it's finally managed to get three iPhone games simultaneously into the US App Store Top 100, and hence registered on the PocketGamer.biz App Store Analysis report for the first time.

There are some obstacles to overcome of course.

CEO Greg Ballard is still looking for his replacement, and highly regarded veep Jill Braff recently left. There's also the small matter of the overall financial year loss predicted for 2009.

But it seems that a corner has been turned.

We caught up with James Scalpello, marketing director EMEA, to find how the publisher viewed the future, both in terms of its mobile business, as well as the many new opportunities that are emerging.

Pocket Gamer: How does a publisher such as Glu deal with creating a slate of iPhone games, especially across different genres?

James Scalpello: There are many factors that determine the type of titles we want to create for the iPhone. With access to several creative studios, a great internal review process, and a number of experienced personnel, we are able to ascertain which titles we believe would be successful.

Invariably our studios will present ideas internally and the review process dictates which products make it and which do not.

I don't believe we are at a point where we need to look at specific genres and say, for example, "We must have a role-play game or a shoot-'em up game". However, it's quite possible that will come as the App Store evolves, and then we will need to take a closer look at the overall portfolio balance.

Currently the App Store - in true Apple tradition - rewards innovation, and that is what we strive for in every game we create - unique and entertaining gameplay. Beat It! and 1000: Find 'Em All are prime examples of this.

How active is Glu in terms of sourcing thirdparty iPhone games?

Because Glu has such fantastic talent within our internal studios, we have not felt the need to date to source products externally. Everything we have created so far has been created internally.

So far only the likes of EA and Gameloft have been able to combine a large number of games in the chart and high app prices. How does Glu expect to match this?

Ultimately the higher-priced titles are well-known branded properties or big 3D games, and to maintain higher price points, having a large brand really helps.

We recently launched Family Guy: Uncensored at £2.99 ($4.99) along with Super KO Boxing 2, and World Series of Poker will be coming shortly at the same price point. The sweet spot generally seems to be around that £2.99/$4.99 price point and having a well-known consumer brand allows you to keep it at that price for longer.

Our portfolio will always be a mixture of high-quality richer games mixed in with lighter fare such as the newly launched Taxi Fight at 59p (99c).

How important is the Java market for Glu?

A large part of our business still comes from the Java and BREW platforms, so we still consider them very important. We are fully committed to that side of the business. We are, however, naturally developing our strategy to take advantage of new platforms such as the iPhone and social networking platforms including Facebook.

What about the likes of BlackBerry, WinMo, Android, Symbian?

We've just announced our support for Windows Market place with two great titles - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and World Series of Poker Pro Challenge - and are happy to support Microsoft in its endeavours to innovate the marketplace.

As a publisher, we welcome new avenues in which to distribute our properties, so as long as the barriers to entry aren't too severe and it is a viable and sustainable ecosystem, it is always something we will consider.

What do you think will be the impact on iPhone micro-transactions on your revenue?

We are currently developing Facebook games to take advantage of a micro-transactional eco-system; within this environment there is plenty of evidence that this is a viable business landscape where the rewards can be large.

Within traditional mobile, and iPhone especially, we are also developing our products to take advantage of this new business model.

Thanks to James for his time.

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