PS5, Switch Game Dev Takes a Back Seat as 80% of Devs Focus on PC

The 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) State of the Game Industry report highlights a significant shift in game development focus. Let's delve into the key findings.

PC Dominance in Game Development

The report, released January 21st, 2025, revealed a striking statistic: 80% of game developers are prioritizing PC as their primary development platform. This represents a substantial 14% increase from the 66% reported in 2024. While the exact reasons remain unclear, the report suggests the rising popularity of Valve's Steam Deck may be a contributing factor. Interestingly, 44% of developers who selected the "Other" platform category specified the Steam Deck as their target.

This trend builds upon previous years, with PC's dominance growing from 56% in 2020. Although the emergence of user-generated content (UGC) platforms like Roblox and Minecraft, and the anticipated launch of the Switch 2, have made waves, PC remains the leading platform. The continued growth in PC game releases is expected, though the Switch 2's potential impact on this trend remains to be seen.

Live Service Games: A Mixed Bag

The report also sheds light on the prevalence of live service games. A third (33%) of AAA developers are currently working on a live service title. Across all respondents, 16% are actively developing live service games, with an additional 13% expressing interest. However, a significant 41% reported no interest, citing concerns such as declining player engagement, creative limitations, potentially exploitative monetization, and developer burnout. GDC emphasizes the issue of market saturation as a major challenge for live service games, citing Ubisoft's XDefiant shutdown as a prime example.

Geographic Underrepresentation in the Survey

A subsequent PC Gamer article (January 23rd, 2025) highlighted a significant underrepresentation of non-Western developers in the GDC report. Nearly 70% of respondents were from Western countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia), with notable absences from major gaming regions like China and Japan. This raises concerns about the potential bias in the report's findings and their applicability to the global game development landscape.