In the wake of a post-COVID market, organizations across industries faced unprecedented challenges. These factors have ushered in a massive consolidation in the workforce and an era of doing more with less. The gaming sector was hit particularly hard, with many studios now working with significant team reductions and resource constraints.
Yet, in the face of these hurdles, game developers have continued to be at the forefront of innovation and developed cutting edge technologies that are being rapidly adopted across industries.
These are some of the core themes we highlighted in our 2024 State of Game Technology Report, published earlier this year. Below, we delve into our key findings from the report, including insights into the future of gaming, emerging game development trends, the top challenges across industries, and more.
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Game Development Trends to Know: What’s In the 2024 Report?
Watch industry experts from Perforce and JetBrains discuss the key findings of our 2024 State of Game Technology report and their predictions on the future of gaming:
5 Trends from our 2024 State of Game Technology Report
For our 2024 report, we surveyed practitioners, senior management, and executives in high-growth sectors such as media & entertainment, automotive, and manufacturing—including 380 game developers working in indie, mid-sized, and AAA studios.
We wanted to assess the impact game development technology is making across industries, as well as identify the key challenges faced by organizations. We also asked open-ended questions about what they would change in their respective industry, and what they’re most excited about.
Here are some of the key findings from this year’s report:
- Funding is the most difficult challenge facing teams.
- Unreal Engine is the most widely used game engine.
- Gen AI is being widely adopted at an organizational level.
- Job seekers value access to senior leadership over the ability to work remotely.
- Managers rated the ability to learn new skills as most important in hiring new team members.
We dive into all of these findings in the full report, which you can download for free. For now, here is a quick look at some of these key findings.
#1 Challenge: Funding
This year, 36% of respondents said that funding is their most significant challenge. In previous years, talent acquisition and retention were the leading challenges. Funding has primarily affected respondents working in Media and Entertainment (42%), Education (42%), and Gaming (37%).
Amongst respondents in the gaming industry, funding was a greater challenge amongst indie and mid-sized studios (53%), whereas collaboration (15%) and time to innovate (14%) were the top challenges listed for AAA studios. Historically, indie studios have struggled more with securing funds for their projects and with the current climate of economic uncertainty, investors are even more hesitant to take risks.
Unreal is the Most Popular Game Engine
Unreal Engine proved to be the most widely used game engine amongst all industries surveyed in the report. Amongst the responses in the Media and Entertainment industry, Unreal Engine was a clear favorite (51%) compared to Unity (16%), the second preferred game engine.
While Unreal continues to be the preferred game engine, even amongst game developers, another trend we observed was the rise of Godot in North America (11%) and Latin America (20%), as well as amongst indie developers (9%). Developers have turned to Godot due to its cost-free model, intuitive design, active developer community, and open-source environment.
Today’s Preferred Game Technology Toolkit
Version control systems have become crucial to the structure of organizations, with 69% of respondents using version control to store and share source files and art assets. Notably, Perforce P4 (formerly Helix Core) was the leading version control platform in gaming (56%), education (57%) and media and entertainment (50%) sectors.
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Managers Value the Ability to Learn New Skills in Hiring New Team Members
Across the board, managers rated the ability to learn new skills as most important in hiring new team members, with 100% of M&E managers listing it as important. In the gaming industry specifically, managers strongly favored general (or cross-functional) experience over specialized experience.
📘 Related Resources: Game Development Resources for Indies to AAAs 🎮
The Future of Game Development: What Do Game Creators Want to Change?
We asked our respondents working in gaming, what would you change about the game development industry?
It was an open-ended question, and survey respondents could write in their answers. We received a variety of answers, but some of the trends we found include:
- Reduced entry barriers—Respondents expressed difficulties in breaking into the gaming industry and advocated for more entry-level roles.
- Realistic project timelines—Game developers emphasized the need for timelines to better align with their team’s resources and capabilities.
- A shift towards indie titles—Several respondents noted that recent AAA studio layoffs will make room for indie games to gain traction and visibility.
As Chris Perez, Brad Hart, and Anastasia Kazakova discuss in the webinar, The State of Game Technology Report: Trends to Know, the things that game developers would change about the industry are aligned with what they are most excited about.
Just some of the things game creators said they are most excited about include:
- The use of AI for concepting and advancement of visual design.
- The future of VR game development.
- State of the art tools that enable limitless creativity.
Get the Full Report for Game Development Trends & Insights
For 30+ pages of actionable insights on game development trends, the future of gaming, widespread organizational challenges, and more, download a full copy of the 2024 State of Game Technology Report for free.