A standard phrase across the online game trade final yr was the mantra of “Suvive ‘til 25”. Instances have been laborious, layoffs have been rife – and folks felt dangerous. However a brand new yr may solely carry higher, proper? Effectively, 2025 has to this point proved that 2024’s motto was a bit over-optimistic to say the least – however hanging out at 2025’s Recreation Builders Convention, it does really feel as if brighter occasions may eventually be on the horizon.
That’s most likely the grand theme of GDC, a convention the place I spent extra time catching up with individuals 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 bit smaller. For starters, key companions and mainstays like Unity and Epic had eschewed sales space, which at all times has the impact of creating your complete present shrink in scope. In a way, it jogged my memory of these later E3s when firms 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 regarded extra meagre – however extra notable, undoubtedly, was the discount in foot visitors.
Let’s not mince phrases: in headcount phrases, the trade has actually shrunk. Forcibly, by the hands of layoffs brought on by money-grubbing executives, firm mismanagement, and pandemic growth over-reach. A wander round GDC and the encircling complicated of resort lobbies and eating places on any given day of the present seems to mirror that.
There’s extra elements in addition to, although. GDC passes are notoriously costly, and as individuals 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 at all times been people attending with no go, taking over conferences across the conference middle whereas others are on the town. A number of of the very best conferences I take to see video games are tucked away in espresso outlets or resort rooms, video games most frequently quietly booted up on a Steam Deck which is then surreptitiously handed to you.
These badgeless individuals – arguably the trade’s most in want of GDC’s networking, gave the impression to be fewer this yr. On this, we have now to have a look at the geopolitical state of affairs, as these from many international locations and backgrounds rethink their willingness to journey within the face of… nicely, you understand, 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 finally have been indicators of an existential shift – however at GDC all of it feels moderately just like the pure generational ebb and move as an alternative. In any case, a lot of the wheeler-dealing finished 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 individuals taking extra substantive conferences on the occasion, it’s clear that the decreased measurement isn’t essentially a unfavorable factor. A few high-flying govt sorts, 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 area for the conferences that stay to thrive. And particular person builders appeared enthused, too – even these working for publishers which have just lately laid individuals 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. “Actually, final sport, it feels prefer it was only a complete miracle we shipped. However proper now, at the least, it seems like I’m transferring in the correct route. My new mission is beginning out in completely the correct method. It’s a world of distinction.”
Whereas Westerners are cautious of current pains, one different factor must be mentioned: builders from the East have a extra optimistic outlook typically. One Japanese developer reveals that they discover it a 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 presently fairly nice in Japan”. This maybe gives a glimpse of 1 curious fact: Japan is again, and China is rising – which suggests the West goes to need to match that vitality. Fortunately, the extra optimistic vibes recommend that might be taking place.
What I’m saying, I suppose, is that the enjoyment of video video games felt a 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 mission – those that have been totally dejected 18 or 24 months in the past – was important. That is nonetheless a hard-nosed enterprise, in fact, and so optimism on the bottom is chilly consolation when you’re at house job looking after some govt slashed your job in an effort to be sure 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 various and consultant of those that make up the trade. Crucially, these misplaced and absent weren’t forgotten – with the awards underlining the risks of AI, the cruelty of layoffs, and the trade’s harmful behavior of haemorraging skilled expertise. Stuff wants calling out – and people have been doing it.
Collaboration proved an fascinating 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 underneath trade physique the ESA for a improbable new accessibility initiative, there’s a better sense of manufacturers working collectively for the better development of the shape.
Amidst the enjoyment, there’s the intense stuff, clearly. I expertise infinite discussions abound about tariffs – which firms are most uncovered, who is ready, and who isn’t. I sit by way of excruciating debates about AI that, with cautious utility of alcohol, escalate rapidly. AI is in all places, from the curious and fascinating implementation (Nvidia’s deal with utilizing AI to boost efficiency appears extra cheap, as an illustration) 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 principally excised, that individual bubble seemingly on its approach to not fairly burst, however extra fizzle out of existence with a whimper.
And whereas job safety remains to be a problem, the place final yr’s GDC was house to a collective pre-arranged primal howl into the void, this yr it’s as an alternative house to an organized and loud protest march for unionization, asserting the launch of a doubtlessly 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 dangerous habits, and into builders getting again within the saddle to construct thrilling new video games.
Most I meet are nonetheless, it must be mentioned, greater than a bit nervous – however there’s a forward-looking vibe that’s distinctly much less poisonous than final yr. Persons 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.
