Every month TMRC polls top games sector execs on big issues in their space. Its new report shows games makers favouring a more direct route to market, and taking out, where possible, the middlemen.

However, the challenge of visibility on apps stores could see the industry facing a re-run of an earlier conundrum - namely how to attain visibility and prominence on operator decks.

The research suggests that over half of mobile games execs believe ‘today’s distribution landscape will be unrecognisable in five years time’. In fact, 78 per cent say that within a couple of years consumers will prefer to buy their mobile games from handset manufacturers’ app stores.

The Apple App Store’s will continue to dominate – mobile games distribution via this channel is expected to nearly double over the next two years.

Another area examined by the new survey is the potential offered by social networking sites for selling and promoting mobile games, with only a minority of execs saying they will not be using them in two years time.

The report is available for sale from The Multimedia Research Consultancy. More details http://www.multimedia-research.com/EP-report-1-update.html