The freemium model is clearly the hot one at the moment for mobile games, but as ngmoco discovered with We Rule, deploying such games is not as easy as it seems.

It's something Glu Mobile is now also discovering with its first big freemium release Gun Bros.

Launching fairly quietly last week, as it's become more popular, so the performance has dropped with game sessions crashing and the servers not being able to support the Game Center multiplayer option.

Straight from the top

Now Glu CEO and president Niccolo De Masi has 'fessed up the problems on the Glu blog.

"We at Glu are enthralled and appreciative of the reception you have given Gun Bros. - our first freemium-social title," he says.

"We are aware of the server issues and bugs and I can assure you our teams are working tirelessly to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Reward and expand

"We will restore any loss of status caused as a result of these issues as soon as possible. As a thank you for your loyalty and support, we will also include a bonus for all users in an upcoming update to the game," he adds.

The game will also support iPad and Android before the end of 2010.

However, the danger for Glu is that if the problems aren't fixed quickly, players will move onto other games and be unlikely to return.

For example, Capcom's launched its first high profile freemium game Lil' Pirates yesterday.

[source: Glu blog]