A typical phrase across the online game business final 12 months was the mantra of “Suvive ‘til 25”. Instances had been arduous, layoffs had been rife – and other people felt dangerous. However a brand new 12 months might solely convey higher, proper? Properly, 2025 has thus far proved that 2024’s motto was a bit of over-optimistic to say the least – however hanging out at 2025’s Recreation Builders Convention, it does really feel as if brighter occasions might ultimately 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 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 long run, 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 of smaller. For starters, key companions and mainstays like Unity and Epic had eschewed sales space, which all the time has the impact of creating the whole 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 all the pieces within the regular present feeling like one thing was lacking. So, sure, GDC’s present ground 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 definitely shrunk. Forcibly, by the hands of layoffs attributable to money-grubbing executives, firm mismanagement, and pandemic increase over-reach. A wander round GDC and the encircling advanced of resort lobbies and eating places on any given day of the present seems to replicate that.
There’s extra components apart from, 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 12 months, so extra flat than a decline. However a time-honored custom of GDC has all the time been people attending and not using a cross, taking over conferences across the conference heart 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 business’s most in want of GDC’s networking, seemed to be fewer this 12 months. On this, we now have to have a look at the geopolitical scenario, as these from many international locations and backgrounds rethink their willingness to journey within the face of… effectively, you understand, all the pieces.
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 ground felt like and in the end had been indicators of an existential shift – however at GDC all of it feels fairly just like the pure generational ebb and stream as a substitute. In any case, a lot of the wheeler-dealing performed 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 ground a lot much less related.
Chatting with individuals taking extra substantive conferences on the occasion, it’s clear that the diminished dimension 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 displaying {that a} discount in dimension 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 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 recreation, it feels prefer it was only a complete miracle we shipped. However proper now, at the very least, it looks like I’m shifting in the proper course. My new venture is beginning out in completely the proper approach. 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 on the whole. One Japanese developer reveals that they discover it a bit of arduous to establish with a number 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 gives 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 bit of extra alive at this 12 months’s GDC. The variety of occasions I ran into an previous acquiatance fizzing with pleasure over a brand new concept or venture – people who had been completely dejected 18 or 24 months in the past – was important. That is nonetheless a hard-nosed enterprise, after all, and so optimism on the bottom is chilly consolation when you’re at dwelling job looking after some govt slashed your job with a view to make certain they’ll 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 hazards of AI, the cruelty of layoffs, and the business’s harmful behavior of haemorraging skilled expertise. Stuff wants calling out – and people had 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 below business physique the ESA for a unbelievable new accessibility initiative, there’s a larger sense of manufacturers working collectively for the larger development of the shape.
Amidst the enjoyment, there’s the intense stuff, clearly. I expertise infinite discussions abound about tariffs – which corporations are most uncovered, who is ready, and who isn’t. I sit by means of excruciating debates about AI that, with cautious software of alcohol, escalate rapidly. AI is in every single place, from the curious and fascinating implementation (Nvidia’s deal with utilizing AI to boost efficiency appears extra cheap, as an 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 principally excised, that exact bubble seemingly on its method 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 12 months’s GDC was dwelling to a collective pre-arranged primal howl into the void, this 12 months it’s as a substitute dwelling to an organized and loud protest march for unionization, saying the launch of a doubtlessly highly effective new union. That juxtaposition maybe sums it up greatest: final 12 months was match for a scream of rage, whereas this 12 months that anger is maybe not changed, however channelled. Channelled into group, into calls for, into calling out dangerous conduct, 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 of nervous – however there’s a forward-looking vibe that’s distinctly much less poisonous than final 12 months. 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 power the powers that be to construct one thing higher.
