Xbox Series X Vs. PlayStation 5: Developers Clearly Favor One Over The Other – Forbes

The annual GDC survey is out, asking game developers a range of questions about where the industry is going, where it’s been and how they think it’s going to change. And it’s a big year for it: the future is less certain now than it’s ever been, with new consoles on the horizon even as VR and cloud gaming threaten to break out of their shells and into the mainstream. Or maybe just business as usual? When it comes to comparing Microsoft’s Xbox Series X to Sony’s PlayStation 5, we can still do a little bit of that. Check out the full survey results here.

The most important piece of information here is that 54 percent of game developers believe that the industry should unionize, but only 21 percent believed that the industry would unionize. The gap speaks to the power disparity between capital and labor, that even with majority support workers are doubtful of their ability to make meaningful change.

With that being said, let’s talk about next-gen consoles, clearly an interesting topic for GDC attendees. Developers were asked a series of three questions: on which platform did you develop your last project on, what platform are you developing your current project on, and what platform are you developing your next project on. The results are interesting.

Note that these numbers add up to more than 100% because of cross-platform development.

Last Project:

• Xbox One—21%
• PS4—24%
• Nintendo Switch–12%
• Mobile–40%
• PC—54%

Current Project:

• Xbox One—23%
• Series X—9%
• Xcloud—3%
• PS4—25%
• PS5—11%
• Nintendo Switch—17%
• Mobile—39%
• PC—56%

Next Project:

• Xbox One—20%
• Series X—17%
• Xcloud—6%
• PS4-20%
• PS5—23%
• PSNow—3%
• Nintendo Switch—19%
• Google Stadia—8%
• Mobile—39%
• PC—52%

There’s a ton of interesting data in here. For one thing, PC remains the most popular platform among them all, beating out Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. That shouldn’t be shocking: PC has the largest install base in the world, it’s exempt from console-style exclusivity fights, and it has the fewest hoops to jump through for release. Mobile, too, is a perpetual favorite, and I imagine there’s a ton of overlap between these huge platforms.

When it comes to next-gen, however, developers show a clear preference for PlayStation 5 over Xbox Series X, though it’s interesting that it’s not a massive difference. The reasoning for this likely changes for each and every developer, but one remembers that developers are commercial creatures and unlikely to be attached to any console for sentimental reasons. If a developer is more interested in PlayStation 5 than Series X, it’s because they think they’ll be able to make more money on that platform. In the case of consoles, that’s likely because they think there will be more of them out there.

Why is that? Developers don’t know who’s going to win the next round of the console war any more than Microsoft and Sony do, but everything we’re seeing so far points to a smooth transition between the two generations of a kind we’ve never seen before: backwards compatiblity on both machines means that people will be able to maintain the majority of their libraries going forward to new hardware, and cross-gen development means that the PS4 and Xbox One will remain relevant for longer.

Why does this matter? It avoids the hard reset that tends to accompany the beginning of a console generation. That reset can be an opportunity for consumers to switch allegiances, as it appears many did when moving from Xbox 360 to PS4. That’s going to happen a lot less this generation, because moving from Microsoft to Sony or vice versa will mean sacrificing your games library.

That means that PS5 will retain the advantage of a PS4 install base, and that it the ecosystem is likely to stay on top in the next phase of the console war. There’s more to the gaming war than the console war at the moment, but for now that particular theater is Sony’s to lose.

“>

The annual GDC survey is out, asking game developers a range of questions about where the industry is going, where it’s been and how they think it’s going to change. And it’s a big year for it: the future is less certain now than it’s ever been, with new consoles on the horizon even as VR and cloud gaming threaten to break out of their shells and into the mainstream. Or maybe just business as usual? When it comes to comparing Microsoft’s Xbox Series X to Sony’s PlayStation 5, we can still do a little bit of that. Check out the full survey results here.

The most important piece of information here is that 54 percent of game developers believe that the industry should unionize, but only 21 percent believed that the industry would unionize. The gap speaks to the power disparity between capital and labor, that even with majority support workers are doubtful of their ability to make meaningful change.

With that being said, let’s talk about next-gen consoles, clearly an interesting topic for GDC attendees. Developers were asked a series of three questions: on which platform did you develop your last project on, what platform are you developing your current project on, and what platform are you developing your next project on. The results are interesting.

Note that these numbers add up to more than 100% because of cross-platform development.

Last Project:

• Xbox One—21%
• PS4—24%
• Nintendo Switch–12%
• Mobile–40%
• PC—54%

Current Project:

• Xbox One—23%
• Series X—9%
• Xcloud—3%
• PS4—25%
• PS5—11%
• Nintendo Switch—17%
• Mobile—39%
• PC—56%

Next Project:

• Xbox One—20%
• Series X—17%
• Xcloud—6%
• PS4-20%
• PS5—23%
• PSNow—3%
• Nintendo Switch—19%
• Google Stadia—8%
• Mobile—39%
• PC—52%

There’s a ton of interesting data in here. For one thing, PC remains the most popular platform among them all, beating out Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. That shouldn’t be shocking: PC has the largest install base in the world, it’s exempt from console-style exclusivity fights, and it has the fewest hoops to jump through for release. Mobile, too, is a perpetual favorite, and I imagine there’s a ton of overlap between these huge platforms.

When it comes to next-gen, however, developers show a clear preference for PlayStation 5 over Xbox Series X, though it’s interesting that it’s not a massive difference. The reasoning for this likely changes for each and every developer, but one remembers that developers are commercial creatures and unlikely to be attached to any console for sentimental reasons. If a developer is more interested in PlayStation 5 than Series X, it’s because they think they’ll be able to make more money on that platform. In the case of consoles, that’s likely because they think there will be more of them out there.

Why is that? Developers don’t know who’s going to win the next round of the console war any more than Microsoft and Sony do, but everything we’re seeing so far points to a smooth transition between the two generations of a kind we’ve never seen before: backwards compatiblity on both machines means that people will be able to maintain the majority of their libraries going forward to new hardware, and cross-gen development means that the PS4 and Xbox One will remain relevant for longer.

Why does this matter? It avoids the hard reset that tends to accompany the beginning of a console generation. That reset can be an opportunity for consumers to switch allegiances, as it appears many did when moving from Xbox 360 to PS4. That’s going to happen a lot less this generation, because moving from Microsoft to Sony or vice versa will mean sacrificing your games library.

That means that PS5 will retain the advantage of a PS4 install base, and that it the ecosystem is likely to stay on top in the next phase of the console war. There’s more to the gaming war than the console war at the moment, but for now that particular theater is Sony’s to lose.