Forward of the Sport Developer’s Convention (GDC) in March, the group behind the occasion launched its newest annual survey of creators on the state of the business. The suggestions confirmed that gaming has been rocked by layoffs over the past 12 months, but in addition pointed to some silver linings for its progress and future heading into 2025.
This yr is anticipated to be a large one for gaming between the launch of Nintendo’s highly-anticipated new Swap 2 console and the long-awaited arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI, the sequel to the second-best-selling sport ever made. However 2025 can also be anticipated to be one other yr stuffed with potential upheaval because the online game business tries to determine its shit out amid each viewers stagnation and document competitors between the tons of of high-quality new video games launched each month.
The 2025 GDC State of the Game Industry report, whose knowledge was compiled from the responses of over 3,000 builders, confirmed sport makers are nonetheless reeling from cuts throughout publishers and studios each huge and small (NYU affiliate professor Laine Nooney mentioned a few of the limits of the information here). Eleven % of respondents mentioned they had been laid off in 2025, with over 40 % of builders feeling the quick affect of these departures. They’re additionally feeling the consequences of generative AI, with over 50 % of respondents saying their corporations use the instruments and roughly one third saying they’ve personally used them to make video games.
Dwell-service video games are one other space during which builders are more and more skeptical. Amid main flops like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Harmony, roughly one-third of builders at big-budget studios mentioned they’re at present engaged on a web-based multiplayer sport, however 41 % of all builders mentioned they’d somewhat be engaged on something however a live-service venture. That sentiment comes alongside conflicting indicators from gamers, with Sony reducing much more live-service initiatives at the same time as hero shooter Marvel Rivals explodes as one of the crucial profitable new on-line video games in years (in the interim, anyway).
One space for optimism? PC gaming. The 2025 GDC State of the Sport Trade survey discovered that extra builders than ever are planning their video games for the open platform. The variety of builders who mentioned they’re engaged on a PC sport grew from 66 % in 2024 to 80 % this yr. The report speculates that this could possibly be due partially to the recognition of Valve’s Steam Deck, which mixes the comfort of a Nintendo Swap with the huge library of Steam video games. (PC gaming has additionally grown by 20 percent since 2021 according to some estimates, at the same time as console gaming has stalled.)
GDC, which runs March 17-21 this yr, consists of curated online game historical past installations, award exhibits, and talks during which builders share tales and insights from their experiences making massively profitable and/or traditionally vital video games (GDC 2025 consists of displays on Astro Bot, Helldivers 2, and extra). But it surely’s additionally a spot the place funding offers for brand new releases, from small indie video games to larger initiatives, get hatched. The right way to safe improvement funding whereas the business is in flux is likely one of the huge matters the convention plans to deal with this yr.
“The dearth of alternatives within the sport business spills into funding alternatives,” one nameless developer mentioned within the survey. “Until you have got one thing that can be live-service or the potential to be tremendous viral, it’s not straightforward to discover a writer.”
