The annual Game Developers Conference recently held its eighth “State of the Industry” survey, and the results show a greatly increased interest in VR among game developers. The conference itself is coming up in mid-March, and this is some of the important preliminary information that the organizers collect beforehand.
For the past eight years, the GDC State of the Industry survey has acted as a snapshot of the video game industry, illustrating its trends and changes according to developers. The respondent game developers are asked to weigh in on a variety of topics that are affecting both creators and players alike. One of the biggest subjects in recent times has been virtual reality, which has failed to gain a sizeable audience since its introduction to the market. There are a number of reasons for this, chief among them being the high price of VR headsets and the lack of substantial exclusive games. Some have already abandoned their hope in VR, but attitudes appear to be changing lately.
A new press release from GDC has revealed the responses to its 2020 survey. Nearly 4000 game developers participated in the survey, and the numbers indicate a renewed faith in VR among creators. The press release states that there was a significant year-over-year uptick in the percentage of respondents who believe VR will become prominent in the next 5 years. One in three respondents (32 percent) said they think AR will dominate, while one quarter (25 percent) said VR would instead. In 2018, only 19 percent said VR would win out. This increase is likely due to the comparative success of the new Oculus Quest headset, which is now the most popular platform for VR devs - almost a quarter of them said they’re developing their next game for the Quest.
The survey also gauged developers’ feelings on other important topics. There’s a burgeoning interest in next-gen platforms: 11 percent of all respondents said their current project is being developed for the PlayStation 5, and 9 percent said they’re developing for the Xbox Series X. There is now more support for unionization among game devs as well. When asked whether game industry workers should unionize, the largest share of respondents (54 percent) said yes. 21 percent said maybe, 16 percent said no, and 9 percent said they weren’t sure. Only 47 percent of respondents said yes to the same question in 2018.
It’s not too surprising that developers are warming up to VR, given that its prospects certainly appear to be improving. Major publishers like Sony and Microsoft seem to be indicating that VR will be a more integral part of the next generation of consoles, and the commercial viability of the Oculus Quest has pulled more consumers into the fold. The platform may also get a killer app soon in Half-Life: Alyx, which skyrocketed the sales of Valve’s Index VR. Still, it’s going to take more than that to make VR relevant to most gamers.
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