GDC: Survey shows European mobile game developers prefer Android platform

Recently, the game developer organization GDC conducted a large-scale survey on game developers' choice of platforms in Europe. The survey results show that PC has surpassed mobile devices to become the most popular platform for European game developers. However, the ability of mobile platforms to attract developers (PS: this cannot be understood as "attractiveness") is still far greater than that of PS4 and XBOX ONE platforms.

The proportion of developers choosing mobile platforms is decreasing

According to the GDC survey, 62% of European developers said that the games they are developing are for the PC platform, and only 50% of developers said that they are trying to develop mobile platforms (PS: This survey is a multiple-choice question, after all, a game can be developed for multiple platforms). In addition, 46% of developers said that their last game was launched on the PC platform, 40% of developers said that their last game was a mobile game, and another 16% of developers said that their last work was a web game.

Last year, in the same survey, mobile platforms accounted for a larger proportion of votes. In last year's survey, 40% of developers said that their recent works were launched on mobile platforms, while developers on PC platforms accounted for 38%. In other words, the PC platform "rebounded" the mobile platform this year.

Most of the games that have been released are for the PC platform; the games that are being developed are also more oriented towards the PC platform. What about the games that are planned to be made in the future? This year's survey shows that the PC platform still "beats" the mobile platform. 67% of European developers said that their next target is the PC platform, while the proportion of votes for the mobile platform is only 53%.

"What is your next target platform?" (multiple choices)

However, although the mobile platform lost to the PC in terms of attractiveness, it still far exceeded the console platform. Here we believe that "attractiveness" cannot be completely understood as "attractiveness", because the development thresholds of different platforms will also have a certain impact. In this year's GDC survey, 34% of developers placed their future plans on the PS4 platform, and 33% left it to the Xbox One. Last year, the survey results were 42% and 26% respectively.

Android "counterattacks" iOS

In addition to the PC platform "reversing" the mobile platform, the survey results also show that the Android platform has a greater ability to attract mobile game developers than the iOS platform. 63% of developers said that their recently released games are mainly for the Android platform, and 57% of developers said that they are mainly for iOS. (Note: Because there is a possibility that a game is released on two platforms at the same time, this survey is a multiple-choice question)

Last year, the results of this survey were iOS 67% and Android 62%.

“Which mobile platform are you currently focusing on?” (multiple choices are allowed)

VR platform becomes the "new favorite" of developers

The survey also covered the VR gaming sector. The survey results showed that although 73% of developers said they had not yet entered the VR gaming sector, 71% of developers were optimistic about the sustainable profit potential of VR games.

In terms of VR gaming device selection, Oculus VR, where "Father of FPS" John Carmack works, became the most popular device, with 22% of developers saying they were developing games for the device, and another 7% of developers voted for Samsung VR device "Gear VR". Sony's Morpheus and Valve's Steam VR took 6% and 3% of the votes respectively.

VR game developers answer: What is your favorite VR device platform? (Multiple choices are allowed)

(Note: Among the developers participating in this GDC Europe survey, 29% are from Germany, 16% are from the UK, 12% are from the Netherlands, 10% are from Sweden, 6% are from Finland, and 5% are from Spain. The remaining developers are from Russia, Norway, Poland, and other countries.)