Gaming Market Report
Griffin Gaming recently shared their 2023 Game Development Report, and I wanted to take the time to reflect on some of their findings.
You can find the complete report here (opens in a new tab)
Key Takeaway:
Huge market shift in adopting off the shelf tools
First, the report: the research was conducted globally, with the majority of studios falling under the small to mid-size category. However, we still think more research should be conducted in smaller to mid-sized studios, as their workflows tend to be more agile and not set in conventional methods. It would be beneficial to exclude publishers or large studios from the mix to avoid diluting the data.
Its a no surprise that the cost to develop a game is on the rise and studios are looking for new workflows. With a staggering 88% respondents evaluating new tools.
Developers spends a considerable amount of time iterating and testing. Not touched specifically in the report, but multiplayer testing is 4X more costly and time intensive based on our internal insights.
Now this is a big one,
Maintaining custom backend or middleware is reported as painful across the board.
Cross-platform support is not easy; the more variables you add, the more chances there are for you to miss the production deadline. If not planned from the beginning, it can end up impacting the launch.
Build it Yourself
This is a well known problem in the industry where game developers likes to build everything in their pipeline. Small Studios cannot have that luxury with limited budget and team.
The industry is now different than it was 3-4 years back.
65% of the respondents are now more willing to Buy than build. Specifically Small-Mid size studios.
I will end with the following chart which is a good representation of the key pain points and how these studios make their decision. Standardizing the tech, time to ship, stability, and vendor risk are all factors playing into the decision-making process.
