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GDC State of the Industry: Devs optimistic about Nintendo Switch, 3% developing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rösti
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Laughing Banana said:
Why would they poll the devs individually while there's a very good chance that a lot of them are working under a same company?

That would make the numbers really skewed, wouldn't it? Why wouldn't they poll per company to get a more accurate measure?
Click to expand...

That's true. My concern for skewing is that over 30% are smartphone developers, and about 50% PC. Smartphone games aren't quite in the same space as the PS4/Xbox. If they are, then all three consoles are losing badly!

Similarly, PC has a rather low barrier to entry, so it's hard to say what the PC developers are really developing. If it's a bunch of low quality, no-name, games no one cares about-similar to the spam on smart phones, then it probably shouldn't be counted either.

Also, the PS4 and Xbox have been released for quite awhile; the Switch has not. Dev kits are still limited from my understanding, so it's not even possible for some developers to make stuff - particularly small time developers that are inflating the numbers.

Anyways, If you only count PS4, PS3, Xbox One, then the switch is really more at 9%, which for a console that hasn't released yet and was just fully revealed yesterday, that's not too bad. Did people think that half the industry was secretly working on Switch games before it was even officially shown off?
 
http://reg.techweb.com/GDCSF17-StateOfGame

Survey reports

Significant trends revealed by the survey results include:
Optimism for the Nintendo Switch
Uncertainty about console updates like PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox's "Project Scorpio"
HTC Vive's ascendancy to become the most popular VR/AR platform for devs
Click to expand...

Some of the observations from the surveys

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I consider the design of the Switch itself far more pleasant than the base console of Wii U and it'll go over Wii U sales for sure, it just depends on how much further it'll take over Wii U.

As a site note:

I cannot wait for the one day where VR is mainstream enough and polished enough that we can get a solid MMORPG experience on it.
 
To me it looks like Nintendo better make Switch a viable VR platform.

A headset to hold the tablet sounds really cheap to include, while using the joycons as controllers sounds rather intuitive.
Just getting the developer interest alone would be worth the effort of releasing the headset... but I assume it's more complicated than that. Resolution of the screen or something?
 
So there's currently ~9 times more PS4 developers and ~7 times more Xbone developers? That's not really that surprising to be honest given that Switch's software lineup is largely Nintendo + Indies right now, whereas the other two platforms have lots of large team AAA games.
 
This is old (back from January), but I suppose GoNintendo's news from a few hours ago made it come to light again as "a new news".

Also, and I hope Rawmeat doesn't have problems with this (I like him and what he does), but I've seen several old news reposted on GoNintendo recently for no apparent reason; among them, also stuff the website already posted
 
Well I mean we have heard from devs on gaf that Nintendo is being stingy as hell on dev kits and that they are telling people they don't want ports on the system right now. So unless you are pitching a new game and someone at Nintendo likes you there is little chance you are an approved developer right now. The question is how will this look next year.
 
mStudios said:
The thing just came out xd
Click to expand...

Yeah but you'd think devs were working on something for the Switch, not just bugger all and I'm assuming with the high percentage of devs working for PC this includes indies, so yeah... I know Nintendo have been giving out the red carpet to indies, but if it's a drop in the ocean compared to PS4 and Xbox One... nevermnd PC it's going to be an interesting first year monitoring the Switch.
 
Let's not forget the dev who would like to be working on the NS, but can't get kits because Nintendo is being selective about who gets them. I hope that by next year they would have opened things up a bit.
 
Wereroku said:
Well I mean we have heard from devs on gaf that Nintendo is being stingy as hell on dev kits and that they are telling people they don't want ports on the system right now. So unless you are pitching a new game and someone at Nintendo likes you there is little chance you are an approved developer right now. The question is how will this look next year.
Click to expand...
Isn't Skyrim a port?
 
Like...if you had all the gaming publishers in an auditorium and made them sign in blood to keep an open mind, and made a chart to convince them all to release Switch titles, imagine starting like this.

"Okay guys, over the last 20 years, Nintendo platforms have accounted for this percent of third party revenue."

Then they could go through a pie chart and note the companies from that list that still exist, which games sold, etc.

Then out of that list of third party games that were successful, Nintendo could note the genres, demographics, etc.

Then finally Nintendo could note market trends. They could show what games are selling right now for third parties, and how the Nintendo Switch's goals align with those trends.

Then finally a show of hands would occur.

"So who's with me?"
 
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