A new survey released by the Game Developers Conference reveals that developers are more excited about the PS5 than the Xbox Series X. Sony is rumored to be working with small and large developers on PS5 games and there is speculation that it has purchased Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions to make a horror game for the console.
In a GDC survey of nearly 4,000 game developers, 50% of developers said that they are most interested in making games for PC - a popular choice in each survey. 38% of developers said that they are interested in developing for the PS5, which is much higher than the 25% of developers who are interested in developing for the Xbox Series X. 23% also said they will be developing their next game for PS5, compared to the 17% that will be developing their next game for Xbox Series X.
There may be a few reasons for the difference between developers' interest in PS5 and Xbox Series X. One may be that the PS4 has sold so well. With the Xbox One trailing behind the PS4 in sales, developers may have more confidence in the PS5's ability to sell well. Developing a PS5 game would make it more likely for those developers to get a return on the cost of developing the game.
Some developers may also be waiting to start developing games for Xbox Series X. It has been confirmed that the Xbox Series X won't have any true exclusives for the first one or two years after it has been released. This decision could potentially make Xbox One owners hold off on buying a new console, making the install base of the Xbox Series X much smaller. It also means that developers could just release their game on Xbox One, which could be cheaper and take less time than getting an Xbox Series X devkit and learning how to make a game for the console.
There have been rumors that the PS5 will have more exclusives than the Xbox Series X at launch. These have not been confirmed and the launch titles for the consoles haven't been officially announced. However, if fewer developers are interested in developing games for the Xbox Series X compared to the PS5, it does support those reports.
Source: GDC