It looks like the high sales of the Nintendo Switch, as well as the incredibly strong performance software has seen all around on the little hybrid console, has made more and more developers interested in bringing their titles to Nintendo’s platform. According to a new GDC poll of developers, 12% of the polled developers are currently creating games for Switch; meanwhile, 15% expect their next game to appear on the Switch.

This marks a stunning year on year increase for the Switch- last year at this same poll, just two months before the system’s launch, only 3% of polled developers expressed any interest in the system. This year, it was the system that saw the third most interest from developers, behind PC and PS4, but ahead of the Xbox One.

A lot of this may have to do with the fact that multiplatform developers are seeing strong sales on the Switch. Per this survey, 28% said their games were selling better on the Switch, while another 23% said sales on Switch were on par with the average- dispelling the notion that third party games don’t sell on the Switch at last.

On the other hand, it seems fewer believe in the promise of VR and AR gaming- 19% of developers said they’re making their current game for VR headsets, while 17% expected to make their next game for those platforms.These numbers are down from 24% and 23% from last year. Also down is the number of developers who feel VR and AR are sustainable long term platforms- 71% of developers do this yea, down from 74% last year.

It should be interesting to see how Nintendo capitalizes on this growing developer interest and support in its platform- the Switch could end up being Nintendo’s biggest third party successes in a long time.

[GamesIndustry]

Pokemon GO‘s success has taken everyone by surprise, and it has made everyone reconsider just what can be achieved with a social experience on smartphones. It has also made the case for AR gaming far more convincingly than anything else has managed to do so far. And EA, on their part, seem to be on board with all of what Pokemon GO is heralding.

“[Pokemon GO is] a great blend of an IP that we have known and loved for the best part of 20 years and a new technology that introduces that to a new audience through mobile devices,” EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson said in the publisher’s earning calls. “What you’ve heard from us is that we have been working on both VR and AR for some time. We’ve made some announcements around VR in mobile and on console with PlayStation VR, and we’re going to continue to invest there.

“As you can imagine, we are energized by the success of Pokemon GO. We have tremendously strong brands that are unbelievably social in nature where we believe that participation at the community level through AR will heighten that experience. We’ve been working on some things for some time and will continue to work on those, and we’ll be ready to launch them at a time where we think we can better engage communities through AR.”

EA also noted that in spite of Pokemon GO‘s success, EA has not seen any loss of revenue for any of their games since its release- so it doesn’t sound like Pokemon GO has poached any players from EA’s games, or anything of that nature.

Pokemon GO is available now on iOS and Android smartdevices.

Microsoft’s HoloLens stands out in an age of VR headsets, bringing augmented reality and a new way to experience games to the Xbox One, and according to Kinect creative director Kudo Tsunoda it has the potential for all kinds of experiences.

Speaking to Game Informer in its latest issue, Tsunoda said, “The thing that HoloLens does is allow you to blend your digital world with your real world. Bringing of those two things together unlocks all kinds of different experiences.

“None of that stuff is things you could do with VR. It’s nothing against VR; I think VR is great tech. But it’s the ‘blending of the worlds’ part about HoloLens that makes it unique. From a gameplay perspective, it’s being able to make your real world environment an integral part of the experience. That’s really different than what you would get from a VR experience.”

Tsunoda also believes that HoloLens will have uses in teaching. One example is drawing holograms in the world visible to a HoloLens users which is a “compelling thing for being able to teach people skills, and allowing them to collaborate in ways they couldn’t do before.”

Thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.

On August 30, Sony will be showing off its new dynamic lighting technique for the PlayStation 4 that has been used to great effect to bring us the suite of SmartAR. The demonstration will be held in Osaka at the, I shit you not, the Hatsune Miku Magical Mirai 2014 show, for which Sony Computer Entertainment is a sponsor.

The reason that this lighting technique is notable at all is because it fixes one of the biggest problems that AR technology has had till date- objects rendered within the augmented reality don’t respond to lighting and shadows in the real world, which means they look artificial and disconnected from the real world. The new dynamic lighting model fixes this by having the rendered object to respond to, and interact with, light and shadow in the real world.

That’s actually pretty neat, although, considering that AR remains largely a gimmick with not much in the way of actual, meaningful applications to gameplay, I don’t think this will amount to anything much in the end. We’ll see, though.