Further to its announcement of 2011 profits of €18.2 million (up 34 percent year-on-year), Gameloft has peeled away some of the layers of its business strategy for 2012.

As with the rest of the industry, it's identified social features and free-to-play games as a critical focus.

All of its smartphone and tablet games released in 2012 will include in-app purchases and be what the company describes as "heavily social".

The company is also bringing the free-to-play model to Java, announcing that it's launched its first such game for feature phones, and that it intends to release more titles in future.

Big business

Further to yesterday news that it's working on a Men in Black 3 game, Gameloft listed some of the other deals it's recently signed.

These include The Dark Knight Rises (DC Comics), Ice Age (Fox), The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man (both Marvel), and My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop (both Hasbro).

Titles based on these brands will be released on feature phones, smartphone and tablets, including Kindle Fire, which it's currently supporting with 32 games.
Update: We've been asked to point out that Gameloft only has the feature phone licence for The Avengers.

And highlighting its scale, Gameloft pointed out that it's had almost 125 million titles downloaded on iOS and Android, with 35 million users playing its games on a monthly basis.