The sixth annual GDC State of the Industry report is an interesting barometer of development; rather than focusing on analysts, it focuses on surveys sent to actual industry developers with anonymous replies, giving a sense of what the industry is working on at the time of its release. And this year’s results have just been released, starting off with the fact that developers appear to be cooling on development for VR. The Nintendo Switch is up, however, as is development for PC over mobile and an increased confidence in esports as a sustainable business avenue.
Equally interesting is the fact that of the developers surveyed, about half of them support the idea of unionizing workers, continuing a trend that we’ve seen on a steady track over the past year. The majority of developers also did not believe that Valve deserves the large cut it takes from games that sell on Steam, which underscores the potential strength of offerings like Epic’s new storefront (which takes a far smaller cut). Interesting stuff if you’re curious about the state of the industry.
