The video game The industry has been in a tough spot over the past year, with studio closures and job security at the forefront of developers’ concerns. Increasing layoffs with seemingly endless growth paint a bleak picture for developers while companies are busy pumping in money AI initiatives.
According to a new report from organizers of the Game Developers Conference, 52 percent of developers surveyed said they work at companies that use them generative AI about their games. Of the 3,000 people surveyed, about half said they were concerned about the technology’s impact on the industry, and a growing number said they had a negative view of AI overall. The State of the Game 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 March in San Francisco.
The 2025 GDC report follows a turbulent few years for the industry. Also as games like AstroBot, Helldivers 2 And Balatro Found success, studios like Microsoft and Sony have Staff reductions And canceled games. Amid a mix of cultural and economic factors impacting the industry, developers are also still grappling with companies’ enthusiasm for technology, which some find ethically questionable.
“I have a PhD in AI and have worked on developing some algorithms used by generative AI,” wrote one developer. “I deeply regret how naively I offered my contributions.”
About 30 percent of developers who took part in the survey said they had a negative view of AI, compared to 18 percent last year; Only 13 percent believed AI had a positive impact on games, down from 21 percent in 2024. “No matter how you put it, generative AI is not a good replacement for real people and quality will suffer as a result,” another developer wrote in her answer.
For developers, AI has this potential Respondents said it is intended to help with various tasks, including coding, concept art, and 3D model generation. However, when asked what uses they saw for AI in the industry, “the word most frequently used in their responses was ‘none,'” the GDC organizers wrote.
In theory, generative AI could help some developers reduce their workload. That doesn’t happen. Instead, developers are reportedly working longer hours than they have in years. Thirteen percent of respondents reported working more than 51 hours per week, compared to 8 percent of respondents last year. While these extra hours could be a result of developers taking on extra work to make up for the loss of colleagues during the massive industry-wide layoffs in 2024, many expressed concerns that AI was also a factor. “We should use generative AI to help people get their jobs done faster and not lose them,” one worker wrote.
Layoffs, the History of the industry for several years now represent a big problem. “Survive until 25“,” the mantra for struggling developers, has done little to help those who have lost their jobs. According to the survey, one in ten developers were laid off last year. There was also a spike in “N/A” responses: “The question didn’t apply because they were already laid off or otherwise unemployed.” In other words, it was no longer a problem because it had somehow already happened to them. “
