In a recent survey conducted by the Game Developers Conference of over 4,500 developers this year, the video games industry is looking pretty hyped about VR and AR.
The HTC Vive stood out as the leading headset in regards to interest from developers currently and potentially working on their next game.
It should be noted that general interest in developing for the Oculus Rift came in a close second, inching out the PlayStation VR. But considering the Oculus Rift reigned as the leading headset in last year’s annual survey, the momentum appears to be in Vive’s favor. Ten percent of VR game developers say they’re working on a game that’s exclusive (on an either timed or permanent basis) to one VR platform — and the majority of them are for the Vive.
When asked which VR/AR platforms they were currently making games for, 24 percent of respondents said Vive, 23 percent said Oculus Rift and 13 percent said PlayStation VR.
That’s a significant shift from last year, when 19 percent answered the same question with Oculus Rift, while the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR garnered 6 percent each.
Looking ahead, GDC asked those surveyed which VR/AR platforms they expected their next game (the one after the one they’re working on now) would be released on. Here again, the HTC Vive won the greatest share of interest, with 45 percent of respondents saying they expected their next project would come to Vive. 30 percent said their next game would release on the Oculus Rift, and 29 percent said PlayStation VR.
1 in 10 game makers are working on a platform-exclusive VR/AR game, predominantly for the Vive.
The conversation around platform exclusives (timed or otherwise) in the VR game industry has been heating up recently, so GDC did survey respondents whether their next VR/AR game was being developed exclusively for a single platform. Half of respondents said they weren’t involved in VR/AR game dev, while 39 percent said no, their next project would not be exclusive to a single VR/AR platform. 11 percent of survey respondents said yes, their next game would be exclusive to one VR/AR platform or device.
33 percent of survey respondents who said their next project would be a platform-exclusive VR/AR game said they were creating it for the HTC Vive, making it the most popular VR system for exclusives.
24 percent of respondents said their next game would be exclusive to the Oculus Rift, and 15 percent said their next project would be a PlayStation VR exclusive.
You can check the rest of the survey’s results for more context on the developers who were polled and to download the full survey.
