As expected, Glu Mobile posted a loss for the third quarter, and the company is starting to see sales negatively affected in more parts of the world.

The company’s GAAP net loss in the third quarter was $56.9 million.

Glu President and CEO Greg Ballard said the company was disappointed with the results and its expectations for the fourth quarter, but he also emphasized the company’s optimism for the future of the mobile gaming industry. New platforms such as the iPhone, Android and N-Gage mean the market is less dependent on carrier-based models and more flexible in going direct to consumers.

Glu is still seeing its games land in the top 5 rankings among various carriers, but the titles that are hits today are not generating the same revenue the company would have seen from a hit last year, he said.

When asked by analysts about cost-cutting measures, Ballard said the company is tightening its belt where it can – in places you’d expect a company to do so – but it doesn’t want to risk cutting too much in R&D because advancements there tend to result in increased revenues. “We’re not going to try to shrink our way out of this,” he said.

The general wariness resulting from economic conditions seems to be spreading to other parts of the world, with signs of softness in China and continued weaknesses in the United States and Western Europe, he said.

But company officials pointed out that the company is roughly at break-even now, so whatever it’s able to bring in above that will result in an upside next year.