Two third of developers think the increasing amount of competition on app stores is the greatest threat to the mobile games industry, while rising development costs are a prime concern for 4 out of 10.

That's according to the results from PocketGamer.biz's most recent developer survey, with old worries – such as OS fragmentation and piracy – seemingly less important.

Farewell to fragmentation

Also high on the agenda is the rise in free content, with 37 percent of developers surveyed citing that as a concern, though competition from the console market – often pushed by the press as an issue – appears not to register with most studios.

Just one in 10 suggested competition from their console brothers is a threat to the mobile gaming industry – the ability of modern smartphones to deliver visuals on a par with games from the previous console generation helping to nullify any misplaced sense of rivalry.

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The extra power mobile devices now pack, however, would appear to be having a detrimental impact on the cost of actually making those games in the first place, however.

While the continued expansion of app stores – with even the Windows Phone Store having sailed past 170,000 apps recently – is also making surviving in the mobile market all the more difficult.

Want more?

Also wrapped up in the report is data on budgets, team sizes, business models, platforms, and a whole host of other nuggets of info.

What's more, we've just kicked off our Global Mobile Developer Survey that will be even bigger and form our next report, just in time for our first ever conference, the two day PG Connects, in January.

To get the latest report, and all future ones, make sure you're logged into the PG Business Network and click on 'Your Downloads'.

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