GDC 2017 Survey: PC Remains Most Popular Platform

[Megalith]

The PC is looking very good here, with 53% of game creators currently developing for it. Following is mobiles at 38%, which is lower than I expected for something so pervasive.

According to GDC 2017’s survey, the PC platform is the most popular one. The survey conducted from the views of over 4,5000 video game developers who have attended GDC over the past 3 years and according to the results, 53% of the survey-takers are currently developing for the PC platform. This further proves how popular the PC platform actually is, as more and more developers are releasing their games on it. In addition, GDC 2017’s survey revealed that 61% of the surveyed developers are not currently developing VR titles, but among those who are, 24 percent are currently making games on HTC and Valve’s Vive headset, 23 percent are supporting Oculus Rift, and 13 percent are supporting Sony’s PlayStation VR.

 

[Chaos Machine]

It's not surprising, there isn't a big difference platform wise from pc to console from a coding standpoint. Mobile I feel isn't being properly tapped. Too many games that are basically casinos that you can never win in.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Mobile I feel isn't being properly tapped.

There's only so much gaming you can do with a touch-based UI.

 

[Nytegard]

There's only so much gaming you can do with a touch-based UI.

This will change though. There have been attempts, but I still believe, sooner or later, your phone will become your computer. Right now, it depends upon who is going to be the main company to push this. And I know Microsoft has tried, but like many other things, their attempt felt half hearted. It really needs the full backing of a company like Apple or Google to push this idea across, and once that happens, I think the landscape is going to change tremendously, as well as very quickly.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

This will change though. There have been attempts, but I still believe, sooner or later, your phone will become your computer. Right now, it depends upon who is going to be the main company to push this. And I know Microsoft has tried, but like many other things, their attempt feels half hearted. It really needs the full backing of a company like Apple or Google to push this idea across, and once that happens, I think the landscape is going to change tremendously, as well as very quickly.

I don't. We're running into the physical performance limitations of silicon hardware as it is. It wont happen for the same reasons tablets stalled out instead of taking over the notebook PC market: we use touch devices for different purposes than a PC. It would be best for mobile and desktop remain separate and focus on their strengths.

 

[MavericK]

This will change though. There have been attempts, but I still believe, sooner or later, your phone will become your computer.

Until smartphones can manifest a full-sized keyboard, mouse, and monitor, this won't happen. You can already do many "computer" functions on them now, if you wish - they have the horsepower for most standard tasks. People don't, though, because it's a hassle trying to work on a 5" screen with only a touch interface.

 

[Nytegard]

Until smartphones can manifest a full-sized keyboard, mouse, and monitor, this won't happen. You can already do many "computer" functions on them now, if you wish - they have the horsepower for most standard tasks. People don't, though, because it's a hassle trying to work on a 5" screen with only a touch interface.

They can easily do all that stuff now. It's not hard to hook up a keyboard or mouse or monitor. And several can be done purely wirelessly. The problem comes that no companies are pushing this, thus you need a separate app for every printer, or mouse, etc. This is why I feel Apple could get away with this. The iPhone 8 could act as a Mac, but Apple would need to include a docking station with the phone, rather than being sold separately. (And while I did say that you could connect hardware wirelessly, there need to be transitional steps to satisfy the customer's fears, hence the docking station. I think trying to act as a pure wireless device with no docking station might be a bit too different for people to accept initially, whereas a docking station would be a nice transitional step).

 

[MavericK]

They can easily do all that stuff now. It's not hard to hook up a keyboard or mouse or monitor. And several can be done purely wirelessly. The problem comes that no companies are pushing this, thus you need a separate app for every printer, or mouse, etc. This is why I feel Apple could get away with this. The iPhone 8 could act as a Mac, but Apple would need to include a docking station with the phone, rather than being sold separately. (And while I did say that you could connect hardware wirelessly, there need to be transitional steps to satisfy the customer's fears, hence the docking station. I think trying to act as a pure wireless device with no docking station might be a bit too different for people to accept initially, whereas a docking station would be a nice transitional step).

Yeah, you can get Bluetooth peripherals, but having to lug all of that stuff around...why wouldn't you just buy a laptop? I am talking like, a fold-out screen or some sort of pico projection, along with a folding keyboard as part of one device. Not sure about the mouse but you can get some pretty tiny ones already.

As far as a company doing this, the logical next step would be a Surface phone from Microsoft, running a version of Win10.

 

[Nytegard]

Yeah, you can get Bluetooth peripherals, but having to lug all of that stuff around...why wouldn't you just buy a laptop? I am talking like, a fold-out screen or some sort of pico projection, along with a folding keyboard as part of one device. Not sure about the mouse but you can get some pretty tiny ones already.

As far as a company doing this, the logical next step would be a Surface phone from Microsoft, running a version of Win10.

Think of it like the Nintendo Switch. You don't need to have a keyboard or mouse (or monitor) with you all the time. You can have it at home, or you can have a laptop like docking station if you wanted a portable like laptop. But for the most part, I can browse Google or [H] on my phone, or send email at the time being. But if you wanted to play Call of Duty on your phone, well, that would require the hookup.

And Microsoft has (had?) the Lumia, but it was a piss poor attempt. Apple once again is best suited to push this route, as their users aren't known to be heavy gamers. I mean, look at the hardware for their latest MacBook Pros. You're not going to be running something like Battlefield One on it any time soon. You don't go after the heavy gamers, who are going to be using desktops most likely. You go after the people who buy laptops.

Now, what really scares me is that we're also more than likely headed to a future scenario where we'll just be streaming games, rather than owning the games ourselves. This I think is inevitable. And I find it quite ironic that the companies which brought us personal computers to get away from time sharing mainframes are the ones who are pushing for computers to become dumb terminals.

 

[HoffY]

I don't. We're running into the physical performance limitations of silicon hardware as it is. It wont happen for the same reasons tablets stalled out instead of taking over the notebook PC market: we use touch devices for different purposes than a PC. It would be best for mobile and desktop remain separate and focus on their strengths.

^this guy gets it!

 

[athenian200]

That doesn't surprise me. I've been drifting towards the PC as my primary gaming platform because that seems to be where all the good games are moving. I'm not a fan of mobile phone games (I don't like the way touchscreens feel on my fingers), and consoles as a whole just aren't innovative anymore. It used to be that playing on console was a different kind of experience from playing on a computer. You would just plug in your game and go. No worrying about storage devices, no loading times, no lag (game was coded from the ground up to take full advantage of the console's known, specific hardware), no Internet connections, no updates, no need to upgrade for at least five years when the next console cycle came around, etc. And on top of that, you would often see totally different games on PC and on console.

Nowadays? PCs and consoles have pretty much the same library except a few exclusives, and you have to tolerate all the same **** as you do on a PC anyway... DLC, buggy games, laggy games, constant stream of updates, running out of disk space, new models mid-cycle, etc. So now I might as well play it on the PC, because if a game is a badly-optimized resource hog on the PC, I can probably try using mods to fix it, or at least upgrade my hardware to make it run well. A badly-optimized, buggy console game... is stuck being what it is. They just don't care enough to make games right in the first place these days, so it's better to have more options for trying to get it working well.

 

[Krab]

Mobile still has a long way to go before I take it seriously as a gaming platform. And that has far more to do with the software than the hardware. There is a lot of potential for good mobiles games. But the vast majority are complete trash that are designed from the ground up to rob people blind.

At some point more serious game developers are going to make real games for mobile devices. But right now it's mostly scammy junk.