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 development focus. A striking 80% of game developers are prioritizing PC as their primary platform, a 14% increase from the previous year's 66%.

PC Dominance and the Steam Deck Factor

The report, released January 21st, 2025, underscores PC's continued dominance. While the exact reasons remain unclear, the growing popularity of Valve's Steam Deck is a likely contributing factor. Although not explicitly listed as a development platform in the survey, 44% of respondents who selected "Other" specified the Steam Deck as a target platform.

This trend builds on previous years, with PC's share rising from 56% in 2020 to 66% in 2024. The emergence of user-generated content (UGC) platforms like Roblox and Minecraft, and the anticipated launch of the Switch 2, haven't significantly altered this trajectory, though the Switch 2's potential impact remains to be seen.

Live Service Games: A Mixed Bag

The report also reveals that one-third (33%) of AAA developers are currently working on live-service games. Across all respondents, 16% are actively developing live-service titles, with another 13% expressing interest. However, a significant 41% are not interested, citing concerns about declining player interest, creative limitations, potentially exploitative practices, and burnout.

GDC points to market saturation as a major challenge for live-service games, with the recent closure of Ubisoft's XDefiant serving as a stark example.

Geographic Representation: A Western Bias?

A subsequent report by PC Gamer (January 23rd, 2025) highlighted a significant underrepresentation of non-Western developers in the GDC survey. 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 potential bias in the GDC report's findings and their applicability to the global game development landscape.