This story comes to us via Engadget and MocoNews, with apparent word that EA have decided to sell their mobile games (which now includes Jamdat's back Catalogue) direct to consumers via their website, rather than rely on carriers to list their games on their mobile portals.

Although the original IGN article that these stories references is no longer available, this move by EA is not something that is entirely unexpected, or entirely surprising. Whilst smaller game developers struggle to get their titles noticed in the marketplace (especially when certain carriers place entry barriers to non-branded games), EA, being the world's largest games publisher has the luxury of a very large, very experienced marketing channel.

The actual delivery of mobile games to end users direct from a website is not that difficult (there are a number of third party companies that will provide you delivery services world-wide for games and other mobile content you host on your website - even I can provide the service, it's that simple). Whilst these rely on OTA (Over The Air) delivery, and typically cost the customer varying amounts depending the type of game, it is also possible to provide these games for direct download, with the hard part being getting the mobile game binary files across to the handset.

According to both stories, EA are also developing a program that will let you download the mobile game binary to your desktop computer and then automatically copy it to your mobile. Sounds a bit like Steam for mobiles...