A standard phrase across the online game business final 12 months was the mantra of “Suvive ‘til 25”. Instances had been exhausting, layoffs had been rife – and other people felt unhealthy. However a brand new 12 months may solely deliver higher, proper? Effectively, 2025 has up to now 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 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 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 all the time has the impact of creating your entire 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 every little thing within the regular present feeling like one thing was lacking. So, sure, GDC’s present ground seemed extra meagre – however extra notable, undoubtedly, was the discount in foot 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 encompassing advanced of lodge lobbies and eating places on any given day of the present seems to mirror that.
There’s extra elements moreover, 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 with no cross, 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 lodge 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 state of affairs, as these from many international locations and backgrounds rethink their willingness to journey within the face of… properly, you recognize, every little thing.
However on the identical time, on the fringes of the conference, it feels as if a wind of change is regularly 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 moderately just like the pure generational ebb and move as a substitute. In spite of everything, a lot of the wheeler-dealing accomplished at GDC takes place in non-public suites, over dinners, or in keen hobnobbing in crowded lodge foyer bars. That hasn’t modified, which makes the size of the present ground a lot much less related.
Talking to individuals taking extra substantive conferences on the occasion, it’s clear that the decreased dimension isn’t essentially a damaging factor. A few high-flying government sorts, talking casually and off-the-record, appeared happy with their progress on the occasion – maybe displaying {that a} discount in dimension and attendance may also 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 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 whole miracle we shipped. However proper now, no less than, it appears like I’m transferring in the best course. My new mission is beginning out in completely the best method. It’s a world of distinction.”
Whereas Westerners are cautious of current pains, one different factor must be stated: builders from the East have a extra optimistic outlook on the whole. One Japanese developer reveals that they discover it a bit exhausting to determine with among 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 presents a glimpse of 1 curious fact: Japan is again, and China is rising – which suggests the West goes to must match that power. Fortunately, the extra optimistic vibes counsel that could possibly be occurring.
What I’m saying, I suppose, is that the enjoyment of video video games felt a bit 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 thought or mission – people who had been completely 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 if you happen to’re at house job searching after some government slashed your job to be able to ensure 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 various 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 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 underneath business physique the ESA for a implausible 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 limitless 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 software of alcohol, escalate shortly. AI is in every single place, from the curious and attention-grabbing implementation (Nvidia’s concentrate on 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 exact bubble seemingly on its technique 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 12 months’s GDC was house to a collective pre-arranged primal howl into the void, this 12 months it’s as a substitute 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 12 months was match for a scream of rage, whereas this 12 months that anger is probably not changed, however channelled. Channelled into group, into calls for, into calling out unhealthy conduct, and into builders getting again within the saddle to construct thrilling new video games.
Most I meet are nonetheless, it must be stated, greater than a bit 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 pressure the powers that be to construct one thing higher.
