PC Dominates Gaming Development: 80% of Devs Turn their Focus Away from PS5 and Switch

The 2025 Game Developers Conference (GDC) State of the Game Industry report highlights a significant shift in development focus. A striking 80% of game developers are prioritizing PC as their primary platform, a 14% jump from the previous year's 66%.

PC Dominance and Potential Shifts:

The report, released January 21, 2025, attributes this surge, in part, to the growing popularity of Valve's Steam Deck. While not explicitly listed as a development platform in the survey, 44% of respondents who selected "Other" specified Steam Deck as a target. This reinforces PC's dominance, a trend escalating from 56% in 2020. However, the anticipated launch of the Switch 2, boasting enhanced graphics and performance, could potentially alter this landscape.

Live Service Games: A Mixed Bag:

The report also reveals that one-third (33%) of AAA developers are currently engaged in live-service game development. Across all respondents, 16% are actively developing live-service titles, with an additional 13% expressing interest. Conversely, 41% show no interest, citing concerns like declining player engagement, creative limitations, and the potential for burnout. GDC emphasizes market saturation as a major challenge for live-service games, exemplified by Ubisoft's recent closure of XDefiant.

Geographic Representation Concerns:

A subsequent PC Gamer article (January 23, 2025) points to a significant underrepresentation of non-Western developers in the GDC report. Nearly 70% of respondents hail from Western nations (US, UK, Canada, Australia), with notable absences from major gaming regions like China and Japan. This raises concerns about potential biases in the findings, suggesting the report may not fully capture the global game development landscape.