A typical phrase across the online game trade final yr was the mantra of “Suvive ‘til 25”. Occasions had been exhausting, layoffs had been rife – and other people felt dangerous. However a brand new yr might solely convey higher, proper? Effectively, 2025 has so 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 instances 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 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 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 at all times has the impact of creating the whole 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 part within the regular present feeling like one thing was lacking. So, sure, GDC’s present ground 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 attributable to money-grubbing executives, firm mismanagement, and pandemic increase over-reach. A wander round GDC and the encompassing complicated of lodge lobbies and eating places on any given day of the present seems to replicate that.
There’s extra components in addition to, 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 at all times been people attending with out a cross, taking on 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 retailers or lodge rooms, video games most frequently quietly booted up on a Steam Deck which is then surreptitiously handed to you.
These badgeless folks – arguably the trade’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 reconsider their willingness to travel within the face of… effectively, you realize, everything.
However on the identical time, on the fringes of the conference, it feels as if a wind of change is step by step starting to quietly howl. At occasions like E3, notable absences from the present ground felt like and finally had been indicators of an existential shift – however at GDC all of it feels quite 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 lodge foyer bars. That hasn’t modified, which makes the dimensions of the present ground a lot much less related.
Chatting with folks taking extra substantive conferences on the occasion, it’s clear that the lowered dimension isn’t essentially a adverse factor. A few high-flying govt varieties, talking casually and off-the-record, appeared happy with their progress on the occasion – maybe exhibiting {that a} discount in dimension and attendance also can 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 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. “Actually, final sport, it feels prefer it was only a whole miracle we shipped. However proper now, not less than, it looks like I’m shifting in the proper path. My new venture is beginning out in completely the proper manner. It’s a world of distinction.”
Whereas Westerners are cautious of latest pains, one different factor needs to be mentioned: builders from the East have a extra optimistic outlook generally. One Japanese developer reveals that they discover it a bit of exhausting to determine with a number 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 power. Fortunately, the extra optimistic vibes recommend that might be occurring.
What I’m saying, I suppose, is that the enjoyment of video video games felt a bit of extra alive at this yr’s GDC. The variety of instances I ran into an outdated acquiatance fizzing with pleasure over a brand new thought or venture – folks that had been completely 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 residence job searching after some govt slashed your job with a view to be certain 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 hazards of AI, the cruelty of layoffs, and the trade’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 beneath trade physique the ESA for a incredible 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 via excruciating debates about AI that, with cautious utility of alcohol, escalate quickly. AI is all over the place, from the curious and attention-grabbing implementation (Nvidia’s give attention to utilizing AI to reinforce efficiency appears extra affordable, 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 specific bubble seemingly on its solution 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 residence to a collective pre-arranged primal howl into the void, this yr it’s as a substitute residence 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 greatest: 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 needs to be mentioned, greater than a bit of 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 power the powers that be to construct one thing higher.