Survey: Developers are showing a greater interest in making games for Nintendo Switch

It’s no secret that Nintendo enjoyed an incredible first year on the market with the Nintendo Switch. Between taking home Game of the Year honors with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the platform boasts an incredible first party lineup that includes Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.

Just ahead of GDC 2018, the pre-show developers poll has gotten its results, and it is showing a much higher interest in the platform going forward.

Per GI.Biz, 12% of the developers polled said that they are currently making games for the Switch, with 15% saying that their next game will come to the platform. While these numbers don’t look all that impressive, it’s important to understand that just a year ago, this same poll showed that only 3% of developers were making games for Switch, while 5% said that their next game would be. An increase of roughly 10% on each category is pretty astounding, all things considered.

However, all was not rosy in this year’s poll as there was a significant drop in interest for both VR and AR games among developers. 19% of developers reported that they were making games for VR headsets, which was a drop from 24% a year ago. Developers expecting to have their next game be VR also saw a similar drop from 23% in 2017 to 17% this year.

This isn’t to say that VR or AR are dying breeds; quite the opposite. 71% of developers said that they were still confident that the platform was sustainable for long-term success. It just goes to show that neither VR nor AR has found that must-have killer app just yet. Hopefully, that day is coming soon.

GDC 2018 runs from Monday, March 19th through Friday, March 23rd in San Francisco, CA.