Twice as many developers surveyed by GDC say they want to make games on PS5 or Switch 2 than on Xbox

The number of developers interested in working on Xbox games is half that of PS5 or Switch.

That’s according to the latest annual State of the Game Industry survey, which is managed by the Game Developers Conference.

The survey, which questions more than 2,300 games industry professionals around the world, asked its respondents to list which platforms interest them most a developer at the moment.

Respondents were allowed to choose as many options as possible, meaning they didn’t have to choose one platform over the other.

80% of respondents said they were interested in developing a game on PC, by far the most popular choice.

However, whereas 40% said they were interested in making PS5 games, and around the same (39%) said the same about Switch 2, only 20% chose Xbox Series X/S as an option.

This makes it closer, in terms of developer popularity, to Android (16%), iOS (16%) or the original Switch (13%) then the other current-gen consoles.

The results suggest a change in attitude towards Microsoft‘s console, given that 40% of respondents said their last project was released on Xbox Series X/S (versus 47% on PS5).

GDC also asked respondents about their desire to work on handheld PCs, and Steam Deck led the pack with 40% saying they wanted to make a Steam Deck game, versus 7% for ROG Xbox Ally.

In a separate question, when asked what the top factors were for their company when choosing which platforms to release their game on, the most popular answers were audience reach (78%), business model success (44%) and discoverability (43%).

Xbox has continued to push towards becoming a multiplatform business, repositioning its consoles as just one of many ways to play its first-party games.

Most of its big games for 2026 are already confirmed for PS5, with Fable arriving on Sony’s console day-and-date with the Xbox version, and Forza Horizon 6 arriving on PS5 later in the year after its Xbox release.