All games should be made for PC first since all games are developed on PC. After the development is finished and stable on PC for release, then they can port it to console.
The reason this likely hasn’t been the case in the past was consoles generally had proprietary hardware that was extremely limited so games were made to squeeze every last drop out of hardware. Additionally the consoles were identical hardware so drivers didn’t need to be robust.
PC’s are myriad in their internal specs which makes drivers for GPU’S and solving bugs and conflicts gets way harder.
However, in recent history the consoles’ hardware have all basically converged to basically be PC’s anyway. Sony and MS are both running AMD platforms and DirectX. Of course Nintendo complicated the matter by switching from AMD in Wii to Nvidia for the switch, but there was never any chance Nintendo was going to care about PC anyway.
I’d imagine this is the case mostly due to the barriers to entry for console development still being high such as:
- SDK licensing fees
- requiring dev kits (whereas PCs and laptops can be acquired for reasonable prices from the junk shop to Ebay, and big box retailers)
- you need experienced console developers (unless you pay someone to port your game)
I could be wrong though
“The exact reason for this jump is unclear, but it could be connected to the rising popularity of Valve’s Steam Deck,” the GDC report says. “This year’s survey didn’t single out Steam (or Valve’s handheld gaming computer) as its own platform, because it’s a hub for PC and Mac games. But it appears some developers do view it as a unique platform. For instance, when asked to name other platforms that interest them, almost half (44%) wrote in Steam Deck.”
I think that’s a very reasonable guess, and I’d add to it that the simple fact of accessibility may also play a very large role in the popularity of PC as a development platform. Making games is hard, but doing it on PC is about as easy as it’s going to get: Learn your programming language of choice, give Valve 100 bucks, and bang, you’re selling your stuff on Steam.
An effect of the Steam Deck I was not expecting
