Every year, in March, takes place the biggest event in the gaming industry in the world, Game Developers Conference (GDC). Just like in the last six editions, before the start of the event, this year the developers were asked about the latest trends in the industry. Here’s what we get from the selection of responses of nearly 4,000 respondents:

• Most developers say it will take 1 or 2 years before virtual reality and augmented reality will have a significant install base and a few years until this equipment will be as often used as consoles. 31% of respondents believe they will exceed the 10% install base in the United States in 2021-2022.

• With 42% of developers who believe mobile will be the most immersive technology in the next 5 years, mobile virtual and augmented reality is ranked first in preference rankings, followed by PC / Console VR/AR by 21%.

• Game developers prefer the Android platform rather than iOS. Android popularity is proven by 53% of respondents who develop games for this platform, while 49% prefer iOS. Compared to last year, there has been a marginal drop for Android from 54% and for iOS from 51%.

• The gaming industry is usually self-funding. 49% of respondents indicate that use as a source of funding their own company funds, 34% their personal funds and 16% an external publisher. The general interest for crowdfunding remains low, 45% say they are interested, 25% say they have not used this source of funding but think about it in the future, while 15% have successfully accessed this source of funding and 5% say they have failed to access funds through this approach. As for the monetization model they are targeting for their next game, 49% said “pay to download”, 39% “free to download”, 23% said paid downloadable content (DLC) and 22% in-game items sold for real money (IAPs).

• 38% of game developers say they are marketing their own games, 34% say they pay for part-time or full-time assistance to a marketing or PR specialist working in-house and only 11% say they pay for the specialized external assistance of a marketing and PR company. Only 17% of game developers work with a publisher for their next game in return for a percentage of sales compared to 23% last year.
• Regarding promotion, Social Media (Facebook, Twitter) is the most effective means of increasing the awareness of a game (22%), followed by promotion on a platform’s digital storefront (19%), word of mouth (17%), paid advertising and YouTube videos 12% each and traditional media and blogging 11%.

Demographics of respondents show that 63% are from the United States, 22% from Europe, 8% from Asia, 4% from South America and 2% from Australia and New Zealand of which 20% are women. Most of the respondents are game developers for about 5 years. 19% of respondents work in large companies of over 500 people, alone 19% or in teams of 3-5 people 15% of them.

With a significant year-on-year increase in the number of players and overall value, the gaming industry is emerging as one of the most dynamic industries in the world. Hot topics now, in a few years are gone and others get the attention of gamers. Today we describe the games as an ever more immersive environment. I wonder what will hold the tomorrow?