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| A crowded show floor at a major game industry event, reflecting ongoing shifts in development tools, platforms, and studio priorities. |
By Jon Scarr
The latest State of the Game Industry Report from the GDC Festival of Gaming puts real numbers behind what you’ve probably been feeling for a while now. Layoffs are still reshaping careers. Development priorities keep shifting. And generative AI is creating a growing divide between how it’s used and how it’s viewed inside studios.
If you’ve been following industry news, none of this will come as a surprise. What matters here is the scale. This year’s survey draws from more than 2,300 industry professionals, and the results give us a clear reason as to why games are being made the way they are right now.
Layoffs Continue to Shape the Industry
Layoffs remain one of the biggest forces affecting the game industry, and the numbers make that hard to ignore. More than one in four respondents said they were laid off within the past two years. In the United States, that figure is even higher. Half of respondents also said their current (or most recent) employer has had layoffs within the past 12 months.
The fallout doesn’t stop with people already working in games. Students and educators surveyed alongside the wider industry are anxious about what comes next. A large share of students said they’re worried about job prospects, pointing to fewer entry-level roles and heavier competition from experienced developers who were recently laid off.
If you’ve been wondering why big projects feel rarer, why teams seem more cautious, or why release plans keep changing, this helps explain it. A lot of studios are still rebuilding, and many are doing it carefully.
PC and Handheld Play Keep Gaining Ground
One of the clearest signals in the report is where developers are focusing their time. PC remains the top platform priority, with a large share of respondents ranking it among their most important targets. At the same time, handheld PC gaming keeps gaining traction. The Steam Deck appears as a major development and optimization focus, and interest in building for it sits close to Nintendo Switch 2 in the survey results.
That matches how a lot of people actually play now. Portable access matters. Being able to move between devices matters. You’re also seeing more developers think about scalable performance and control options earlier, because handheld PC support changes the baseline for what “runs well” really means.
The engine picture is shifting too. Unreal Engine leads as the most common primary engine, especially at larger studios. Unity still holds a strong position with many indie teams, while tools like Godot continue to grow with newer developers.
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| The Nintendo Switch 2 reflects the growing focus on handheld and hybrid gaming as developers continue to prioritize flexible platforms. |
Generative AI Is Creating a Bigger Divide Inside Studios
Generative AI is still being used across the industry, but the most important story here is how people feel about it.
More than half of respondents said generative AI is having a negative effect on the game industry. That number has risen year over year, and the strongest pushback comes from roles closest to the creative and technical core of game development, including art, design, narrative, and programming.
Usage also varies wildly depending on what you do. The survey suggests adoption is much higher in business, publishing, and marketing roles than it is inside development teams. And when people do use these tools, it’s often for research, planning, and administrative writing, not for player-facing features.
Put those pieces together and you get a pretty clear picture. A lot of leadership groups treat generative AI like a productivity boost. A lot of developers see risk, both in creative ownership and in long-term job security. That gap isn’t shrinking.
Union Support Is Rising, Especially Among Younger Developers
Unionization continues to gain momentum, and the survey results suggest support is strongest among people who have the most to lose when things go bad. A large majority of U.S.-based respondents said they support unionization, with support even higher among those who have experienced layoffs. Younger developers show almost no opposition.
That shift has already been playing out in real time. Over the past year, several large publishers have seen workers organize in response to restructuring and job security concerns.
You can also connect this directly to what happens when studios make major structural changes. When teams organize and still face shutdowns or restructuring shortly after, it underlines how fragile many roles can be, especially inside large publisher networks.
Union membership itself is still relatively low, but interest in joining is rising. At this point, worker protections aren’t a side conversation. They’re becoming part of the wider discussion around what sustainable careers in games should look like.
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| Ubisoft has been one of several major publishers where labour organization efforts have emerged amid wider industry changes. |
Funding Pressure Is Changing How Games Get Made
Another important piece of the report is how developers are funding work. A large share of respondents said they primarily rely on self-funding. Publishing deals remain a common route, but private investment and venture capital appear far less central than many people assume.
This helps explain why you’re seeing tighter scopes, longer development cycles, and fewer big swings without clear backing. When money is harder to secure, risk tolerance drops.
The report also touches on tariffs and cost increases affecting business decision-making, including hardware and component costs. Even when those impacts don’t hit your day-to-day play directly, they can still shape what projects get approved and what budgets get cut.
An Industry Still in Transition
Put all of this together and the report reads like a snapshot of an industry still working through major structural change. Development priorities are shifting. Career paths feel less predictable. Tools and platforms keep evolving. And a lot of workers are looking for stronger protections after years of instability.
For you as a player, this context helps explain why release calendars look the way they do, why timelines stretch longer, and why studios keep making safer bets. The industry is still moving forward. It’s just doing it more carefully than it did a few years ago.
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