PS5 is the Developer’s Favorite Console, According to GDC Survey

The Game Developers Conference recently published its 2021 State of the Game Industry report. In it, it offers data from an industry-wide survey it conducted. Among other information, it reveals what the most popular console among developers is — and surprise, it’s the PlayStation 5.

The results come from data collected from 3,000 industry professionals. According to the results, 44% of the respondents said they were most interested in developing for the PS5. Of the other consoles in the poll, the Nintendo Switch came second at 38%. Then it was the Xbox Series X/S at 30% and finally VR coming in at 27%. I’m going to assume developers were permitted more than one answer, because that adds up to 139%. Also, while the PS5 was the most popular console, PC got a whopping 58% of the vote. Game streaming services got much smaller parts of the pie, with the most popular being Project xCloud at just 8%.

This is in keeping with a previous GDC survey (taken before the consoles were released) in which developers were asked which console interested them more, and 38% said PlayStation 5 while 25% said Series X. Fewer developers at the time reported even developing a game for Series X as opposed to PS5. There’s no information on why game developers seem to like the PS5 so much, and that’s the information we could use. Perhaps it’s either down to the powerful hardware; or perhaps it’s because Xbox games are frequently released cross-platform with PC games, meaning it’s easier to develop for the PC first.

These aren’t the only details from the GDC survey. 44% of developers reported that the pandemic had caused a delay in their game. In response to the question of whether working from home had improved developer productivity, responses were almost evenly split between affirmative, neutral, and negative.

Source: IGN