Valve's Steam Voted Easiest Platform for Indies

In a recent survey of 100 indie studios, 64% said that Valve’s Steam service was the easiest to develop for, thanks to both the tech itself and the support from Valve. However, 28% claim developing for Steam was “so-so” while 8% claim that it’s difficult. None claimed it was excruciating.

After Valve came Facebook, Apple iOS, and Google Android, in that order. Facebook with a 57% “very easy” and 47% “so-so”. Apple with 54% “very easy” and 46% “so-so”. No developer found either “difficult” or “excruciating”. Google pulled 27% “very easy”, 45% “so-so”, 18% “difficult”, and 9% “excruciating”.

Following them, came the three console publishers: Sony(PSN), Nintendo(WiiWare), and Microsoft(XBLA), in that order. The majority of developers found developing for PSN “so-so”, Wiiware “difficult”, and XBLA “excruciating”. Nobody found working with Microsoft to be “very easy”.

After them came cell phone carriers, with 57% saying developing for them is excruciating, and 43% said it was difficult.

This data was collected by Ron Carmel, co-founder of independent studio 2D Boy, developer of World of Goo

This news is re-enforced by past stories, like Cthulu Saves the World ”thriving” on the PC, indie developers turning their backs on XBLA, and gives a bit of weight to Team Meat’s decision to never work with Microsoft again. Seems the future is not looking too good for XBLA. If your an indie developer, Steam seems to be the way to go. Or if your dead-set on releasing on consoles, you’d be better off releasing on PSN.

Via – develop-online