While the freemium games model has been exploding in many different forms in 2011, only Glu Mobile has broken out of the typical time management gameplay popularised by the likes of FarmVille and We Rule.

Instead, it gone for a more hardcore audience, which is often apathetic, if not downright hostile to the in-app purchase model.

Yeah, the success of games such as Gun Bros. - over 7 million downloads across iOS and Android - seems to demonstrate the right content can fine favour.

We caught up with Glu's marketing veep Mike Breslin to find out more.

PocketGamer: With freemium games such as Gun Bros. and Contract Killer, Glu is targeting a different audience to the FarmVille-style of games. Why?

Mike Breslin: With the majority of developers flooding the market with more and more 2D casual games, and several of those being resource management or farming games, we saw an opportunity to develop games for an underserved segment of mobile gamer... the 3D social mobile gamer.

As the power of smartphones has drastically increased, we've seen a marked acceptance of mobile games from the hardcore gamer. As evidenced by the incredible reach and ever growing install base of smartphones overshadowing handheld consoles (and rivaling set top box console install bases), mobile gaming is here to stay and only getting bigger.

Hardcore gamers can be hostile to the freemium model, so what's the reaction been?

The response from the hardcore segment has been fantastic. Any gamer, core or casual, appreciates 3D, high quality, connected and free games.

This is illustrated in our most recent launch of Bug Village (currently #8 in US Top Free games) and further supported by the App Store-staying power of games such as Gun Bros. and Contract Killer.

The trajectory in which our most recent 3D social mobile games have taken is testament to the presence of a healthy appetite for 3D, high quality, social mobile games. This trend, coupled with App Store top 25 and top 50 grossing rankings shows there is a male 18-35 year old segment of mobile gamers that are ravenous consumers of good mobile games.

You've been pushing Android, both in terms of Android Market and Amazon Appstore, so how are you finding this platform?

Monetising freemium content on Android is still a challenge. However, we are bullish on the rapid maturation of the Android ecosystem and confident that in-app purchases will gain momentum.

With quality games and a free price point driving large scale downloads, we believe the Android consumer will adopt the freemium model as the iOS community has.

Games such as Contract Killer and Big Time Gangsta aren't as socially connected as the likes of FarmVille so what plans do you have to add such features?

We believe sociability is of paramount importance. We also believe in prioritising game features based on what the consumer behavior indicates and demands.

We scrub the analytics to truly understand our consumer's gameplay habits. If our consumer does not utilise certain social features, the unused features get de-prioritised to ensure we only include features that are important to our consumer. The level of social connectivity is relevant and directly proportional to the needs of the game.

In our 3D social mobile games, players can earn awards and achievements and post high scores to leader boards via Game Center. In addition to employing Game Center social features, players can invite Facebook friends to be a 'Bro' in Gun Bros. and Men vs. Machines for example.

The more freemium games you launch, the more games you have to support and update. How is that changing your development culture?

We plan for persistent on-going development support of all our 3D social mobile games. It is a different development mentality to the box product approach of feature phones (develop a game, publish, sunset when it's gone through its sales cycle) - we continually update, polish and support our games.

We conduct regular meetings to monitor a games success, plan updates and react to consumer behaviour. It is now a 'games as a service' model versus a one-off product launch.

Thanks to Mike for his time.