Well, currently I'm just learning game development (with SDL and C++), so the topic which I want to discuss should actually not concern me currently.

But, I have been wondering about it from a lot of time and just couldn't help asking it over here.

I am curious about the platform which will yield most money in the future (let's say after 15 years). So, that I can concentrate on its development.

I am currently considering:

• Virtual Reality - probably people are going to look for more details in games
• Android - maybe android will win over iOS and windows 10 phone?
• Html5 - its cross platform and online
• Gaming Consoles - specialized for gaming
• Windows 10 PC - the most famous PC operating system

Which do you think should I particularly focus on? Where is the most revenue? I am in the view that if I spend my time learning unnecessary things (those which I will understand later are of little or no use in the future) then I will simply waste my time.

For that matter, also tell me which languages to focus on. Currently I focus on C++ but maybe in the future it won't be of much use. Should I focus on Python, C#, Java, or some other, which one? In the future probably, the problems in development will be way larger and high level languages will be more in demand.

Please answer as descriptively and elaborately as possible, and if possible provide further references for statistical information, I'm serious :mellow:.

15 years??? :O

That's eons in terms of computer technology!

Go back to 2000, and see what we had then. Compare with what we have now, that's the kind of gap you're talking about.

My best guess is that everything that we have now will be obsolete. In a dark corner some one still boots Windows 10, like people boot DOS now :p

The standard platform in 15 years hasn't been invented yet.

Even if we knew what it was going to be, imho it would be unwise to focus on that only. You'd be like the guys coding Cobol. They thought they'd have a job forever. However technology moves on, new languages appear, Cobol was discarded, and they're out of a job.

Technology moves faster all the time. Focussing on a particular technology means you'll be obsolete pretty soon.

The trick to solve this challenge is, in my view, be flexible. Everything is changing all the time. Keep your eyes and ears open, try new things. Adapt what you like.

It will serve you a lifetime.

Go back to 2000, and see what we had then. Compare with what we have now, that's the kind of gap you're talking about.

Hell just go back to 2007. I was writing J2ME and BREW games for mobile handsets. Sure there ere some powerful handsets but in order to release on a carriers decks you had to port to stuff that only had 64k of ram and only had a screen refresh rate of 15fps. We had early access to Android devkits in 2006 and they had blackberry style keyboards because Google still hadn't decided to go with the touchscreen route.
Internet games were entirely ruled by Flash. OSX wasn't mainstream enough to be a consideration and consoles were the realm of big budget companies who could afford thousands for each devkit. Your only real option was PC and even then there was no steam or windows store so you had to put your game on a website and hope people found it.

We can only speculate what the future will hold. Smartphones and consoles will possibly have been replaced with something else. PCs and HTML(even this could be replaced with web assembly) will most likely still be around but the technology used to develop for them will most likely be different.

So there isn't much point trying to focus your efforts. Just write games for what is around now and keep your skill set up to date.

:o

LOL , I was in a hurry and said 15 years since it was the first round figure which came into my mind (I wish I hadn't put the number after all).

So, I have to remain flexible, keep my eyes and ears open and go with what interest me, right?

To change my question a bit, well, which are the platforms which earn most revenue, today?

I am curious about the platform which will yield most money in the future (let's say after
15 years). So, that I can concentrate on its development.
Which do you think should I particularly focus on? Where is the most revenue?

This is not a For Beginners question but rather a Business question. Please ask this kind
of question in the appropriate forum, not here in For Beginners. FB is a technical forum,
not a business forum.

Oh, sorry. I was of the impression that as long as I'm a beginner, I should post in this forum.
Also, though the question was related to business, I had the perspective of a beginner, right?

For that matter, also tell me which languages to focus on. Currently I focus on C++

but maybe in the future it won't be of much use.

Because you asked that question, I'm leaving the thread here in For Beginners, where this
question belongs.

Will it be useful then?

To change my question a bit, well, which are the platforms which earn most revenue, today?

To change my question a bit, well, which are the platforms which earn most revenue, today?

It doesn't matter. The revenue earned by the platform is the revenue earned by the platform vendor (e.g., Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo). You are not thinking about making a platform, you're thinking about making a game for a platform.

The platform you pick will not determine how much revenue you'll bring in; the quality and success of the game you make is the key factor there. And unfortunately, there's no mathematical formula or flowchart to arrive at how to make a quality, successful game or we'd all be rich already. The only real factor the platform choice will have are market share and demographic related, and those aren't likely to matter to you because the ceiling of even the lowest-market-share platform is several orders of magnitude beyond what you're likely to attract as a customer base right now. Even if, by some miracle, you hit that saturation point, at that point you'd have the money and popularity to easily get your game ported to other platforms and continue your runaway success.

You're thinking about the wrong things; think instead about the kind of game you are excited to make on the platforms you have available to you and know how to develop for right now. If you just want to make money, go get a job writing financial software.

Thanks a lot! I got the point. Maybe I was too curious and worrying about unnecessary things.

BTW, I'm not of the age to get a job.