Reports circulated last year that Sony and Microsoft have already sent out development kits to studios making games for next-generation consoles. While the rumors were unsubstantiated at the time, a new survey of developers confirms that some are now hard at work making games for next-gen systems.

In the GDC (Game Developers Conference) State of the Industry Report 2019, almost 4,000 game developers were surveyed on their current projects. Of these developers, 16% of them (approximately 640 developers) confirmed that they are developing games for existing consoles as well as unannounced (next-generation) consoles. A further 2% of those surveyed (approximately 80 developers) said that they are working exclusively on games for unannounced (next-generation) consoles.

These figures are incredibly low and seem to pour water on rumors that next-generation consoles will be available next year. Many analysts had suggested that the new consoles - which are being referred to as the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Two - would be announced in the summer of 2020 for a release in holiday 2020. While these announcements could still happen, with such a low number of developers working on games for the system (multi-generational games or otherwise) suggests that a release isn't going to happen soon.

Another reason why many developers (46% of those surveyed, equivalent to 1,840) are focusing on the current generation of consoles instead of the next-generation is that they don't know if the consoles will be a success. While Sony and Microsoft are expected to include fan-requested features such as backward compatibility, there is no guarantee that either the PS5 or the Xbox Two would be a success. Therefore, it could be a major financial gamble to make games for the console without these being announced and without measuring the response from fans.

A similar thing happened with the Nintendo Switch. Third-party developers and publishers did eventually announce support for the Nintendo Switch in droves. However, the GDC State of the Industry Report 2017 survey of 4,500 developers (compiled just before the Switch launch) revealed that just 3% were working on games for the console. This was a result of the poor sales and low interest in the Switch's predecessor, the Nintendo Wii U.

Following the survey, the Switch released and proved to be a massive success, selling out all over the place. In the 2019 GDC report, almost half of devs say that they are most interested in the Switch. But developers - especially smaller studios - could not take that risk until the system's popularity was proven. With this in mind, there's no reason to suggest that the PS5 or Xbox Two will have few games at launch, but it reflects that developers are being cautious with their resources.

Source: GDC