Glu Mobile在它过去的几个商业季度已经遭遇了一段困难时期了。 这个手机游戏制造商以在这周二报道亏损了320万的方式结束了最近的商业季， 这已经伴随着一整年的类似亏损了。

不过，Glu有项计划为这个450个员工的公司扳回利润。据一月份新加入Glu的首席执行官Niccolo de Masi所说，这个计划即为移动设备装置社交游戏。公司也刚提出1350万美的资金投入以支持新重点。

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对于社交游戏，de Masi认为到目前为止还很少有在移动设备上的社交游戏，主要是因为现在主体智能手机平台如iPhone和Android并没有必需的规模来支持有大型过滤病毒和虚拟基础的游戏。

“Glu 有独有的优势在这方面取胜，即有能力说服所有智能手机用户，” de Masi说。由于Glu历来同时开发多平台的单机游戏，de Masi 认为它正为持续社会做同样的事情，以此达到所需规模支持freemium（Free+Premium）型游戏当然目前即使iPhone和Android联合也可能提供不了足够的潜力玩家。但de Masi认为，改变迅速。“从今年圣诞节开始，游戏领域所谓的超级手机将会置成– iPhone, Android, Windows 和 Palm是大的四个，随后英特尔的MeeGo也可能是重要角色。“一些市场除了智能手机已经几乎没什么可卖。”他说。

如同其他已经探讨过贯穿主要移动平台的公司，de Masi对这种可能性报乐观态度。“很少有手机游戏一年能赚超过1000万，”他说。“不能像它在网上那样赚一亿的原因在于，分裂和均化作用。我想我们是第一家开始打破冰（玻璃顶棚glass ceiling）的公司。

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但市场能否不辜负de Masi的期望，部分取决于Glu真正生产出来的游戏有多好。关于游戏本身，Glu计划今年发行五款手机社交游戏。（译者：南奇）

Glu Mobile Plans a Turnaround With Social Games for Smartphones

Glu Mobile has had a tough time of its past few business quarters. The mobile phone game maker ended up its most recent quarter by reporting a $3.2 million loss this Tuesday, following a year of similar losses.

There’s a plan to turn the 450 employee company back to profits, though. That plan is social games for mobile devices, according to CEO Niccolo de Masi, who joined Glu in January. The company also just raised $13.5 million in new funding to support its new focus.

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By social games, de Masi means titles like those seen on Facebook, featuring mostly asynchronous play against friends. There have been few true social games on mobile devices to date, mainly because the major smartphone platforms — right now, just the iPhone and Android — don’t have the necessary scale to support massive virality and virtual goods-based games.

“Glu has unique advantages to succeed here, namely in being able to address all smartphone users,” says de Masi. Since Glu has traditionally developed its single-player games for multiple platforms at once, de Masi sees it doing the same thing with persistent social worlds, thus reaching the needed scale to support a freemium game.

Right now, of course, even the iPhone and Android combined might not provide enough potential players. But de Masi sees that changing quickly. “Starting this Christmas and on, the playing field for so-called super phones will be set — iPhone, Android, Windows and Palm [HP]  will be the big four, with maybe [Intel's] MeeGo becoming important after that. There’s already almost nothing for sale in some markets except smartphones,” he says.

Like other companies that have talked about crossing the major mobile platforms, de Masi is optimistic about the potential. “There are very few mobile games that generate more than $10 million a year,” he says. “The reason that’s not $100 million as it is online is because of fragmentation and homogenization. We think we’re the first company that can start breaking through that glass ceiling.”

While the market will have to live up to de Masi’s expectations, part of the plan depends on how well the games Glu actually produces turn out. games themselves. Glu plans to release five mobile social games this year; we’ll be reporting back on those first efforts when they’re ready.