Each year, the Game Developer Conference (GDC) announced the results of the survey of the game industry, collecting feedback from more than 3,000 developers. The 13th annual survey – which you can find here – those who answer on topics including firing, AI generation, direct service explosion and funding. As the nature of our time, it is a grim salad with a few bright water nozzles. From the introduction of the report, do not mention Croutons even once:
It feels like the past 12 months have witnessed their sharing of luck and heartbreak. The firing of industry has continued, to the point that one of the 10 developers said they had lost their jobs in the past year. Many studios apply AI, although it is increasingly uncommon among developers. Working hours are increasing, the investment opportunities are being narrowed and recent harsh weather events are attracting attention to the growing impact of climate disasters.
But the game industry is resilient, as well as its developers. Development of PC has skyrocketed, many studios are giving priority to accessing games, supporting the alliance to keep stable and Hollywood continues to see the value in adaptive games for large (and small) screens.
It is rare to see a week passing, where we do not hear about losing their jobs in a certain form, but even so, one of the ten people achieved extremely difficult. The most affected role is 19%, compared to 6% working in business and finance. The most common reasons given are restructuring, reducing revenue and changing markets/industry trends. During the survey last year, 53% of the respondents were not affected by the dismissal, individual or at the company they worked. This year that number has dropped to 43%.
19% of the developers told GDC that they were “without reason” for firing at their company. “If you lose your job, you can find a new one?” Asked the survey for a “part of your words”, collecting quotations directly from the answer. ” The game industry is killing me, “is a developer’s answer.
The climate of this firing fatigue is combined with an increasing indifference to generation AI tools, often advertised as the future of the industry. “The development of the game is said to be an art and a manifestation of a person’s imagination, not a concept created by anyone who does not have a real thought process”, reading quotes from a respondent who quoted this part of general AI tools. The majority of developers (52%) were surveyed, saying they worked at a company using such tools. 16% of respondents said their company had a policy against the use of generation AI tools, compared to 9% of their use.
Nearly a third of the respondents feel that the genetic AI has a negative impact on the industry: 30%, up from 20% last year. 13% felt the impact was positive, reduced from 21%. “When required to quote their specific concerns, developers have shown the act of theft of intellectual property, energy consumption, the quality of the content created by AI, potential prejudices and legal issues,” the survey read.
“When asked which applications they see to use AI in general in the game industry, developers have pointed out tasks such as encryption support, conceptual art and creating 3D models and automating repeated tasks (developers have made similar proposals in our 2024 survey),” read reports. “But the most frequent use of their answers is ‘no’.”
I should admit that the rhetoric device they used at the end – combined with the open quote above – is obviously very misleading on one side of the argument. After that, again, it was also the aspect of the argument I was in, and so good. Objective is for less weenies.
There are a few very lucky things, because the report highlights the top. “71% of developers think that the company’s access efforts and their company’s access to at least a little successful, while 51% feel like that of their company’s sustainable efforts.” In addition, the support of the Trade Union is still suitable compared to last year, with 58% of the respondents supported – a number may increase, because this is the first year since the survey begins that the number of working developers decreased by 40 hours or less every week.
The development of PC also seems healthy, with 80% of surveying developers currently performing games for our lovely thoughts, up from 66% last year.
