Report claims spending freeze for Oberon Media

The games industry isn't immune from the current global economic woes, as recent announcements of layoffs at EA and THQ show.

Now casual games firm Oberon Media - which includes mobile publisher I-play - has kicked off costcutting measures in an effort to ride out the slump and reach "sustained profitability" by the second quarter of next year.

The news comes from a leaked memo from CEO Tomr Ben-Kiki, sent to employees:

"While Oberon Media is still, and will continue to be, a strong leader in the casual gaming community, we are experiencing the same pressures as every other business in the marketplace," it says.

"We need to make sure that we optimize both our short- and long-term strategies to ensure that we are well positioned currently and over time. As a result, after a couple of years of significant investments we made to grow our business, we will now be focusing on achieving sustained profitability no later than Q2 of 2009."

That means cutting travel and entertainment budgets, freezing salaries, and axeing outsourcing and consulting costs. There's no mention of layoffs though.

Like rival Glu Mobile, I-play is facing the challenge of cutting costs and reaching profitability, while also investing to make the most of new mobile platforms like iPhone, Android and N-Gage.