The jury is still out on whether virtual reality devices like the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR will play a major role in the future of gaming, but developers are at least going to take a crack at it; a "state of the industry" survey from the Game Developers Conference organization shows that nearly one in six developers are currently working on VR-compatible games.
Sixteen percent of respondents out of approximately 2,000 surveyed said they were currently working on VR games, while 15 percent said their next game would be compatible with the burgeoning technology. It's possible there's some overlap there, but even with conservative estimates, that's still a healthy amount of interest. It's also more than double the numbers from GDC's previous survey, which saw just 7 percent currently developing, and 6 percent planning for their next game.
For comparison, 52 percent of those surveyed confirmed they were working on a PC-bound project, 27 percent for PS4, 23 percent for Xbox One, and 5 percent for Wii U. So if we look at VR as a platform - something Facebook founder and Oculus purchaser Mark Zuckerberg has referred to the Rift as - it's already got more than half of the support that PS4 and Xbox One have, and triple the support of the Wii U. Again, it's possible there's crossover here, but the numbers still show the industry becoming more comfortable with VR's future prospects.
Whether it's the PS4-specific PlayStation VR, the PC-bound Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, or the smartphone-using Gear VR, there are plenty of devices to create VR games for. The only thing that remains to be seen is if people will buy them. The industry is giving it a shot. Will you?
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