Almost half are still unsure about the Steam Deck
A survey of 2700 game developers has revealed that the PC is their favourite platform for the tenth year in a row.
Ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference (March 21 – April 1), a survey has revealed that a majority of developers prefer the PC to consoles or mobiles.
According to the report, 63 per cent are currently developing a project for PC, with 58 per cent looking to have their next project available on PC. 62 per cent said the platform was the most interesting prospect for them as developers, an increase of 4 per cent from 2021.
The Playstation 5 was the second choice for developers across the same three categories while the Nintendo Switch was the third most interesting platform according to 39 per cent of developers.
Elsewhere in the report, 36 per cent of the 2700 developers asked believed the Steam Deck would be a “viable game platform in the long term” while 46 per cent were unsure.
GDC state of the industry is out!!
Key takeaways for me. PC is king again! Accessibility in games on the rise! Unionization conversations are becoming more and more welcomed. Inclusion and toxicity is still a black mark on the industry. https://t.co/ho8kryYVaS
— Cory Dornbusch (@Cory_Dornbusch) January 20, 2022
“This is a product gamers have wanted for a long time. Now the hardware is possible at a reasonable price – and has Valve’s support – it will be a success,” said one developer with another adding “The Steam Deck will be huge for small independent developers who struggle to get their games on Switch and other handheld devices.”
“It’s nifty, but not revolutionary,” replied another.
It comes as in December last year, it was reported that the Steam Deck now natively works with 80 per cent of Steam’s top 100 games, according to new analysis by fan group ProtonDB.
The community, which tests games against Valve’s Proton compatibility layer says that only 10% of the top 100 games are entirely incompatible, with the rest of them functioning to varied levels of success. While games like Destiny 2 and New World are unplayable, it’s currently unclear whether that’s a restriction from the developers, or something else.
Elsewhere in the report, it’s said that a majority of developers aren’t interested in NFTs or cryptocurrency while third believe the metaverse concept will never deliver on the promises people are making.
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