Reports such as the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) State of the Game Industry Survey can be a good indicator of where the industry is heading and what direction developers see as the best to spend their time on. Today, the XRDC has released its fourth AR/VR Innovation Report, and for the first time creator interest has shifted away from HTC Vive towards Oculus Rift.
Having gathered data from over 900 surveyed professionals, the AR/VR Innovation Report asked developers what platforms they were working on, with 29 percent saying Oculus Rift; putting it firmly ahead of HTC Vive on 24 percent. This does also highlight a dilution in the industry, with more platforms now available. In the 2018 report, 41 percent of developers said Oculus Rift.
New kid Oculus Quest has certainly garnered plenty of attention as 24 percent of developers are working on content for the device. However, PlayStation VR with over 4 million headsets sold languishes way down the list with a rather measly 7 percent (the same as Gear VR and Google Cardboard).
Most tellingly when it comes to the future of content support, when asked about which platforms future projects would be developed for Oculus stood head and shoulders above the rest. 30 percent of respondents said Oculus Rift, while 28 percent said Oculus Quest. Even Oculus Go managed 10 percent. HTC Vive came in at 24 percent, while its high-end brethren Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye received 17 percent and 7 percent respectively. PlayStation VR achieved 11 percent, the same as Valve Index.
As for augmented reality (AR), the results show that for platforms being worked on Android/ARCore hit 23 percent while Apple/ARKit was at 19 percent. Support for future projects was very similar, with ARCore still sat at 23 percent while ARKit jumped slightly to 21 percent. This puts them both in closer proximity to Oculus and HTC Vive devices, evening that divide just a little bit further.
When it comes to the focus of all this work, videogames still dominate at 59 percent of all projects. Education is another important topic developers are keen on exploring, with 33 percent working on some form of teaching experience.
Profit as always remains an issue, especially in the short term. When asked about their profit forecast time-wise, only 11 percent said short term, 27 percent said medium-term and 23 percent said long term. 6 percent worryingly said never. As further announcements are made regarding the health of the VR/AR industries, VRFocus will keep you updated.
