Survey: more than half of developers working on PC games
More than 2600 North American developers have been surveyed in preparation for the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March. The survey polled which platforms developers are planning on making games for, and how they plan on seeking funding.
More than 2600 North American developers have been surveyed in preparation for the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March. The survey polled which platforms developers are planning on making games for, and how they plan on seeking funding.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, PS4 is the most popular console platform for developers, with 20% intending to make games for Sony's new console. To compare, only 17% and 4% of those surveyed said they will work on Xbox One and Wii U respectively.
Of course, while PS4 might edge out other consoles in developer mindshare, consoles aren't where a majority of effort is being placed. According to the report (via Polygon), more than half of developers plan on making games for PC, Mac, or mobile. Specifically, 53% of respondents are working on PC/Mac games, while 52% of developers are making games for tablets and smartphones.
The developers surveyed were attendees of last year's GDC.
Most developers are also self-publishing their projects, with 64% of respondents not working with a publisher. Clearly, digital distribution on platforms like PC and mobile have enabled devs to move away from publishers. In addition, crowdfunding is making an increased impact on game development, with 11% of surveyed developers saying they've used crowdfunding as a monetary resource.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Survey: more than half of developers working on PC games.
More than 2600 North American developers have been surveyed in preparation for the upcoming Game Developers Conference in March. The survey polled which platforms developers are planning on making games for, and how they plan on seeking funding.-
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We had a good run.
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Even CliffyB has changed his tune from 6 years ago:
February 2008: http://www.shacknews.com/article/51354/epic-designer-says-pc-gaming
"For me, the PC is kind of the secondary part of what we’re doing," Bleszinski told MTV Multiplayer. " [PC is] important for us, but right now making AAA games on consoles is where we're at.
February 2014: http://gamasutra.com/view/news/210733/With_new_perspective_on_life_and_games_Cliff_Bleszinski_plots_next_move.php
"PC is where I'm going to wind up. That's where the community is," he says. "The trend will always be the core. If I start a studio, I want a community manager there day one. I want weekly video or podcasts; I want task lists available on the subreddit. When my wife and I play Rust, before we play, we check the subreddit. Whenever you get a little bored with a game, someone issues an update. I feel like a game developer again, where I get to check out the build list."
"The whole 'old guard,' where you get a Game Informer cover and an E3 reveal, is dead," says Bleszinski. "I'll never make another disc-based game for the rest of my career, and [at E3] they're trying to woo buyers from Target and Walmart?"
Of course, a lot of that is the result of having made three Gears of War games, and then leaving Epic in October 2012. Also, Steam evolved into a platform that aggressively promotes the PC, and retail sales in general are changing drastically, beyond the simple "the only place I can buy a game is Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, or online from Amazon" factor.-
It's neat to see how the market is shifting back again.
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archvile, do you have a stock of CliffyB quotes and articles that you just keep handy or something? It's kind of uncanny.
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lies. 100% lie. PC died as a gaming platform years ago. right around the time the 360 came out. there have been no success stories on the platform. its dead, more than dead. its SUPER DEAD. the consoles basically made the PC moot, as you can get 1/100th the power for about 1/3 the cost, and with the ability to pay more for games, and monthly subscriptions to access multiplayer. those are things the PC have never and will never be able to compete with.
i cant even comprehend a..... PC game? is that the right way to say it? Computer Game? have you seen the quality of console games these days? the latest COD had a ..... DOG... a real, honest to god, moderate polycount, somewhat well animated... WAR POOCH. that is just not feasible on the PC with its .....PCness.
and did you know they are now making it where you can ... DOWNLOAD entire games onto your console, through the world wide web? like, you cant fucking even comprehend that, let alone put it on a computer. i cant even breathe right now, im so blown away by all this.-
Fish AI...on a PC...as if.
http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/inconceivable.jpg -
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There's a pretty significant difference though or there used to be at least. The content was much more sophisticated and varied for pc games while console games tended towards mainstream popularity and simpler controls/gameplay. The pc gamers have always despised the fact that pc gaming was being compromised for mainstream gaming dollars. This kind of news just reinforces the idea that pc gaming is strong and healthy and will be despite the doom and gloom of industry experts like CliffyB who were more than eager to write pc gaming off.
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Yeah I agree with this, the whole PC games "master race" elitists are quite silly. We are all gamers and should respect that both console and PC platforms have great titles. I love to kick back with my friends on the couch and play console games just as much as I like competitively gaming online on the PC.
<a href="www.highgroundgaming.com">-Corbin</a>
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In all honesty, I think PC gaming's biggest hit happened with MS started dialing back the DirectX advocacy. MS poured funds into the gaming industry in terms of development dollars and marketing. They pushed for unified apis like DirecDraw/Show/Control,etc. It really did bring the end of developers having to code for specific graphic chips. Rallying developers to the platform did a lot. And, they were rewarded with financial success - lets face it, you just weren't going to do Decent on a console and make money. We coasted on that for a good long while while MS pushed DirectX up through to 9. But, they shifted so much attention away from that (I guess to the 360 - soooo, umm... yeah I guess I just ended up playing to your point.. HAH HA!) that it slowed and it's been stuck in low gear since then.
IDK.. maybe we need another evangelist; a Alex St. John or a John Carmack to help rally everyone again. -
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Use a different example than COD next time since its on PC. :(
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I'm reading this in the voice of Joe Pesci and it's killing me.
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Dude, this post ruined my life and had sex with my dog! I am now a cryhard because of this post, you terrible monster!
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<RAGE!> Bad reporting of data always drives me crazy. 64% of respondents not working with a publisher... but how many of those are only doing mobile games (the 50.63% of respondents) since it's pretty easy to self-publish mobile games? We're not to the point where self-publishing console games is quite a thing (though it's coming). PC is getting there more and more. But, that's also my question. How does that 64% breakdown into development by platform?
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Isn't the more relevant figure (at least, from a business perspective) how much money is being generated per developer per platform, or something along those lines? PCs could have more total developers simply because there are more indies doing stuff, but their financial viability may be completely suspect. It's kind of like noting how many apps there are for mobile and declaring it "huge," but leaving out that actual income or profit remains concentrated among a tiny minority of those apps.
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Better use of a headline than Joystiq, thank you for keeping it classy Shacknews.
