Video Games

Game Developers Aren’t Sold on the Metaverse

Bold and bold speculation about a futuristic metaverse is commonplace in gaming industry discussions, but game developers themselves seem less enthusiastic about the concept.

The State of the Games Industry 2023 survey has just been published, asking over 2,300 game developers for their context and opinions on topics such as platform development, working conditions and their interest in technology. One of the most interesting questions this year was specifically about the metaverse.

“Which of these companies/platforms do you think would be best suited to deliver on the promise of the Metaverse Concept?”

The platforms that ended up with the most votes were Epic Games’ Fornite with 14%, Meta (Horizon Worlds) with 7% and Microsoft (Minecraft) with 7%. Five percent of the developers said he was Roblox, and even fewer cited options such as Google, Apple, Second Life, Sony, Tencent, Amazon and VR Chat.

But none got as many votes as the non-platform answer at all. “None – the metaverse concept will never live up to its promise” took his 45% of the vote away from his 33% last year. Therefore, almost half of the game developers surveyed believe that the promise of the Metaverse is of little value.

why?

IGN does not have access to all of the survey responses, but GDC and the game developer have published some comments made by respondents. In particular, the question “What does it take for the metaverse to become sustainable?” It included a lengthy response from one survey respondent that “seemed to represent the voice of the majority of respondents,” according to GDC. The answer focuses on the Metaverse as a VR experience, and his current VR environment has the level of interactivity, affordability, standardization of controls, and quality of hardware needed to bring the Metaverse to life. pointed out to be missing.

Respondents also noted that despite this, there is still no clear definition of what the Metaverse should do. Become.

“The Promise of the Metaverse is nothing as it stands,” they write. Remember what happened in cloud gaming 10 years ago and is still going on?”

Other respondents commented that the Metaverse already existed for good and that companies continue to rebrand it, with one comment suggesting that it shouldn’t exist at all.

Indeed, the Metaverse has been much discussed, and in recent years there has been a significant influx of money to bring it to life. But companies like Meta have also lost a lot of money as bets didn’t pay off, leaving even industry leaders wondering if it’s worth the cost.

In addition to Metaverse questions, the survey also asked developers about their interest in other technologies, such as blockchain. 75% of his respondents said they weren’t interested at all, and 56% were completely against using it.

In addition, developers were asked about workplace culture and policies. When asked in the wake of the Roe v. Wade overturn, 16% of businesses said they had facilitated changes in their healthcare policies related to reproductive care last year, and 9% said they had introduced trans-inclusive healthcare policies. said to have improved.

Working hours has always been a big topic in these surveys as well. In this year’s survey, 29% of respondents said they work an average of 36-40 hours per week. On average 33% worked less and 38% worked more. However, when asked about the maximum number of hours worked per week, 46% said he worked more than 50 hours and 16% said he worked more than 70 hours a week.

Reasons cited included self-pressure (74%), management pressure (14%) and peer pressure (11%), with 36% saying they did not feel overworked ( 54% of respondents didn’t report working harder). In a week he over 50 hours).

of Full report can be downloaded here It also contains responses on other topics such as platform interest, industry opinion on unionization and integration.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.

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