A typical phrase across the online game business final yr was the mantra of “Suvive ‘til 25”. Occasions had been laborious, layoffs had been rife – and folks felt unhealthy. However a brand new yr might solely carry higher, proper? Effectively, 2025 has to this point proved that 2024’s motto was a little bit over-optimistic to say the least – however hanging out at 2025’s Recreation Builders Convention, it does really feel as if brighter occasions might finally be on the horizon.
That’s in all probability the grand theme of GDC, a convention the place I spent extra time catching up with folks and hanging out than I did seeing new video video games or chasing down tales. One particular evaluation appears to have taken maintain, in that few appear disposed to disclaim that issues are fairly fucked up proper now – however many are lastly feeling correctly optimistic for the longer term, which wasn’t true for the jittery, nervous temper of 2024.
On the bottom within the Moscone Conference Heart’s expo halls, GDC felt a little bit smaller. For starters, key companions and mainstays like Unity and Epic had eschewed sales space, which all the time has the impact of constructing the complete present shrink in scope. In a way, it jogged my memory of these later E3s when corporations like Sony and EA took their enterprise off-site, leaving the whole lot within the regular present feeling like one thing was lacking. So, sure, GDC’s present flooring appeared extra meagre – however extra notable, undoubtedly, was the discount in foot site visitors.
Let’s not mince phrases: in headcount phrases, the business has actually shrunk. Forcibly, by the hands of layoffs attributable to money-grubbing executives, firm mismanagement, and pandemic growth over-reach. A wander round GDC and the encompassing advanced of resort lobbies and eating places on any given day of the present seems to replicate that.
There’s extra elements moreover, although. GDC passes are notoriously costly, and as folks tighten their belts maybe they’re too frivolous an expense. Official GDC attendance numbers pin the variety of badges issued as roughly the identical as final yr, so extra flat than a decline. However a time-honored custom of GDC has all the time been folks attending and not using a go, taking over conferences across the conference heart whereas others are on the town. A number of of the perfect conferences I take to see video games are tucked away in espresso retailers or resort rooms, video games most frequently quietly booted up on a Steam Deck which is then surreptitiously handed to you.
These badgeless folks – arguably the business’s most in want of GDC’s networking, seemed to be fewer this yr. On this, now we have to have a look at the geopolitical scenario, as these from many nations and backgrounds rethink their willingness to journey within the face of… effectively, you already know, the whole lot.
However on the similar time, on the fringes of the conference, it feels as if a wind of change is steadily starting to quietly howl. At occasions like E3, notable absences from the present flooring felt like and in the end had been indicators of an existential shift – however at GDC all of it feels somewhat just like the pure generational ebb and stream as a substitute. In spite of everything, a lot of the wheeler-dealing achieved at GDC takes place in non-public suites, over dinners, or in keen hobnobbing in crowded resort foyer bars. That hasn’t modified, which makes the size of the present flooring a lot much less related.
Talking to folks taking extra substantive conferences on the occasion, it’s clear that the decreased measurement isn’t essentially a damaging factor. A few high-flying government varieties, talking casually and off-the-record, appeared happy with their progress on the occasion – maybe exhibiting {that a} discount in measurement and attendance can even function a discount in noise, permitting house for the conferences that stay to thrive. And particular person builders appeared enthused, too – even these working for publishers which have lately laid folks off appeared to have a tad extra optimism now.
“I’m feeling extra hopeful, yeah,” one developer mused to me in an after-hours catch-up. “Truthfully, final recreation, it feels prefer it was only a whole miracle we shipped. However proper now, at the least, it seems like I’m transferring in the precise course. My new challenge is beginning out in completely the precise manner. It’s a world of distinction.”
Whereas Westerners are cautious of current pains, one different factor needs to be mentioned: builders from the East have a extra optimistic outlook normally. One Japanese developer reveals that they discover it a little bit laborious to establish with a few of the fearful undertones in talks and informal chatter from their Western colleagues as a result of “issues are at the moment fairly nice in Japan”. This maybe affords a glimpse of 1 curious fact: Japan is again, and China is rising – which implies the West goes to need to match that vitality. Fortunately, the extra optimistic vibes recommend that could possibly be taking place.
What I’m saying, I suppose, is that the enjoyment of video video games felt a little bit extra alive at this yr’s GDC. The variety of occasions I ran into an previous acquiatance fizzing with pleasure over a brand new concept or challenge – those that had been totally dejected 18 or 24 months in the past – was vital. That is nonetheless a hard-nosed enterprise, in fact, and so optimism on the bottom is chilly consolation should you’re at house job searching after some government slashed your job with a purpose to ensure that they will afford their subsequent yacht. However the artwork and expression of gaming was extra on show in happier faces, in joyous alternate management scheme showcases, and in an awards ceremony that was brilliantly numerous and consultant of those that make up the business. Crucially, these misplaced and absent weren’t forgotten – with the awards underlining the risks of AI, the cruelty of layoffs, and the business’s harmful behavior of haemorraging skilled expertise. Stuff wants calling out – and folks had been doing it.
Collaboration proved an attention-grabbing theme, too. From Nvidia, AMD, and Intel standing on the identical stage collectively thrilling exposing graphical developments they’re all behind, to most of gaming’s main publishers pulling collectively beneath business physique the ESA for a unbelievable new accessibility initiative, there’s a higher sense of manufacturers working collectively for the higher development of the shape.
Amidst the enjoyment, there’s the intense stuff, clearly. I expertise countless discussions abound about tariffs – which corporations are most uncovered, who is ready, and who isn’t. I sit via excruciating debates about AI that, with cautious utility of alcohol, escalate rapidly. AI is in every single place, from the curious and attention-grabbing implementation (Nvidia’s give attention to utilizing AI to reinforce efficiency appears extra cheap, for example) to nonsense job-stealing guff that creates dubious-quality outcomes. However I used to be happy to see that web3 crap seems to have been largely excised, that individual bubble seemingly on its solution to not fairly burst, however extra fizzle out of existence with a whimper.
And whereas job safety continues to be a difficulty, the place final yr’s GDC was house to a collective pre-arranged primal howl into the void, this yr it’s as a substitute house to an organized and loud protest march for unionization, saying the launch of a probably highly effective new union. That juxtaposition maybe sums it up finest: final yr was match for a scream of rage, whereas this yr that anger is probably not changed, however channelled. Channelled into group, into calls for, into calling out unhealthy habits, and into builders getting again within the saddle to construct thrilling new video games.
Most I meet are nonetheless, it needs to be mentioned, greater than a little bit nervous – however there’s a forward-looking vibe that’s distinctly much less poisonous than final yr. Individuals are enthusiastic about making video games once more. In 2024, the mantra was simply to outlive. In 2025, it feels just like the intention is to pressure the powers that be to construct one thing higher.
