the video game The industry has been in trouble for the past year, with studio closures and job security at the forefront of developers’ concerns. Seemingly endless mounting layoffs paint a bleak picture for developers, while companies are busy pumping money into AI initiatives.
According to a new report from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference, 52 percent of developers surveyed said they worked at companies that used generative AI in their games. Of the 3,000 people surveyed, about half said they were concerned about the impact of technology on the industry and a growing number reported feeling negatively about AI in general. The “State of the Gaming Industry” report, released Tuesday, is part of a series of surveys conducted each year by GDC organizers ahead of their annual conference. This year’s event will take place in San Francisco in March.
The 2025 GDC report comes on the heels of a tumultuous couple of years in the industry. Even when games like Astrobot, helldivers 2and Balatro found success, studies like microsoft and Sony has cut staff and canceled games. Amid a mix of cultural and economic factors affecting the industry, developers also continue to grapple with companies’ enthusiasm for technology that some consider ethically troubling.
“I have a PhD in AI and worked to develop some of the algorithms used by generative AI,” wrote one developer. “I deeply regret the naivety with which I offered my contributions.”
About 30 percent of developers who responded to the survey said they had negative opinions about AI, up from 18 percent last year; Only 13 percent believed AI was having a positive impact on games, down from 21 percent in 2024. “No matter how you say it, generative AI is not a great replacement for real people and the quality will be seen harmed,” said another developer. he wrote in his response.
For developers, AI has the potential to help with various tasks, respondents said, including coding, concept art and generating 3D models, but when asked what uses they saw for AI in the industry, “the word used most frequently in their responses was ‘none,'” GDC organizers. wrote.
In theory, generative AI could help some developers lighten their workloads. That’s not happening. Instead, developers are reportedly working more hours than they have in years. Thirteen percent of respondents reported working more than 51 hours a week, up from 8 percent of respondents last year. While those extra hours could be attributed to developers taking on extra work to compensate for colleagues lost during the mass industry-wide layoffs of 2024, many expressed concern that AI was also a factor. “We should use generative AI to help people get faster at their jobs, not lose them,” one worker wrote.
Layoffs, the story of the industry for the past few years, still pose a big problem. “Survive until the 25th,” the mantra of struggling developers, hardly helped those who lost their jobs. According to the survey, one in 10 developers have been laid off in the last year. There was also an increase in “N/A” responses: “the question did not apply because they were already laid off or unemployed. In other words, it wasn’t a concern now because, in some way, it had already happened to them.”