PS4 beats Xbox One in developer survey

A new Game Developers Conference poll of North American developers illustrates numerous trends in the industry, perhaps the most notable of which is that developers prefer the PlayStation 4 to the Xbox One.

20 percent of surveyed developers said they plan to release their next game on the PS4, compared to 17 percent for the Xbox One. Nintendo's Wii U lags the furthest behind, with just 4 percent of developers planning to ship their next game for the struggling system. 14 percent of creators are currently working on a PS4 game, compared to 12 percent for the Xbox One, and 4 percent for the Wii U.

In terms of worldwide sales, the PS4 is also outpacing the the Xbox One. The PS4 has sold 5.3 million systems as of February 8, while the Xbox One has sold-through more than 3 million systems as of the end of 2013.

The PS4 maybe the platform of choice for console-minded developers, but the PC and smartphone/tablet market was the most popular overall with surveyed developers.

A whopping 51 percent said they intend to ship their next game for smartphone/tablet, while 52 percent said they will launch their next title for PC/Mac. In addition, 53 percent of respondents said they are currently working on a PC/Mac game, while 52 percent are making games for tablet/smartphones.

The GDC survey also provides insight into how developers are choosing to publish their games and the overwhelming result was self-publishing. 64 percent of respondents said they are not working with a publisher for the current game, while 19 percent said they are (the remaining 17 percent work at a publisher). This is roughly the same percentage split as last year.

In terms of gathering money to get a project off the ground, self-funding remains the most popular for polled developers. 52 percent said at least a component of their funding comes from their studio's existing coffers, while 46 percent said they contribute their own personal funds. These numbers are up from last year, when 37 percent of participants used their own company's money to fund development, while 35 percent contributed their own money.

Though crowdfunding gets a lot of attention thanks to high-profile projects from the likes of Tim Schafer (Broken Age), Brian Fargo (Wasteland 2), and Peter Molyneux (Godus), only 11 percent of survey participants said they used crowdfunding as a means to fund their current project. However, this number is indeed on the rise, up from 4 percent last year.

The GDC survey is based on more than 2,600 Game Developers Conference Attendees who attended last year's event. GDC 2014 takes place in San Francisco March 17-21. GameSpot will be on the ground at the event bringing you coverage of the annual developers show.