GDC Survey Reveals Developers are Working on Next-Gen Games, Probably Won't Unionize

Every year, the Game Developers Conference meets up and gives game developers the chance to meet up, hang out, and discuss issues in their industry. It’s mostly just a networking opportunity, but they still get around to doing important stuff. For example, holding surveys that show the current state of the games industry. And just the other day, they published the results of their last big survey, asking 4,000 developers some questions about what they’re getting up too. And lemme say there are a lot of juicy deets held within.

For example, 18 percent of those surveyed are working on next-gen games (although only 2 percent say they’re exclusively next-gen). But only 46 percent are saying they’re working exclusively for existing hardware… hmmmm….

The idea of work hours and unionization was a big deal earlier last year, and that’s reflected in the survey as well. 44 percent said they worked more than 40 hours at work per week, although the most commonly cited reason for that is self-pressure. 47 percent think that workers should unionize, which is good, but only 21 percent think that might actually happen, which is bad.

Let’s see… only 50 percent of developers said their games were traditional “pay to play”, while 41 percent said theirs were “free to download”. Refreshingly, only 9 percent said their games would include paid loot-boxes, which probably just means there were very few mobile developers at the conference.

The gender ratio in the industry has improved, with 77 percent of those in attendance being male and 19 percent being female: which is an upgrade from last year’s 80 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Oh, and one more interesting tidbit: while the PC remains the most popular platform for selling games, it’s actually the Switch that's in second place. And 45 percent of developers consider the Switch the most interesting console.

Anyway, there are lots more info where that came from, and you can find most of it right here. Does any of it leave you feeling especially optimistic?