Game Developers Are Losing Interest in The Metaverse and Blockchain

The metaverse and blockchain aren’t being eyed up by game developers with as much interest or confidence as last year, according to a survey(Opens in a new window) by the Games Developers Conference. 

The GDC’s 2023 State of the Game Industry Survey drew responses from 2,300 game development professionals, two-thirds of whom have worked in game development for three to 20 years.

When asked what companies or platforms are best placed to deliver the metaverse, nearly half (45%) of developers questioned said they did not believe the metaverse concept will ever deliver on its promise, with Meta, one of the biggest champions of the metaverse receiving just 7% of the respondents’ support. As VentureBeat(Opens in a new window) reports, this represents a 12% increase from 2022 when 33% of developers stated they didn’t believe the metaverse concept would ever succeed.

Epic Games/Fortnite received the highest vote of confidence, with the support of 14% of respondents, while Microsoft/Minecraft obtained 7%, the same as Meta/Horizon Worlds. 

In their response to the question, developers cited a range of reasons for their lack of faith in the metaverse concept, such as its “unclear definition” and the high cost of hardware, as well as the lack of “substantial interactivity” offered so far.

Attitudes towards the adoption of blockchain in the game industry are not looking very favorable either. 23% of developers who responded to the survey said that their studios have expressed “some level of interest” in using cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens, and Web3 to support their games. This stands as a 4% drop from 2022.

17% of game developers stated they were inclined to use blockchain technology in their future games, with a huge 61% being opposed to it. 25% said they were unsure or did not have an opinion. 

Meanwhile, just 2% of developers said their studios were already using blockchain technology in their projects.