eSports is making a considerable wave through the industry, gaining legitimacy and the attention of video game developers. 12 percent of developers consider themselves working on an eSports game— specifically, a "competitive, skill-based multiplayer game"—according to the 2015 State of the Industry Survey conducted by the 2015 Game Developers Conference.
Of the 2,000 respondents, who are all game developers in North America, 79 percent believe that eSports is a long-term, sustainable business, in part due to Twitch and competitions like EVO.
Development of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One titles are also on the rise, with about 10-12% more developers stating that they are working on a new-gen title compared to last year; specifically, that's 26 percent for PlayStation 4 (up from 14%) and 22 percent for Xbox One (up from 12%). Still, more than half of developers are developing for PC or mobile platforms.
In terms of profit, only 13 percent of surveyed developers said that it typically came from retail, whereas 29 percent stated they it came from direct sales or digital sales, and 21 percent relied on microtransactions. The growth in the size of development teams were also quite common in 2014 with 44 percent responding that their teams had grown versus 15% who stated that they lost staff.
