While generative AI is being adopted at various levels of game development, a new survey suggests that developers increasingly think the technology is bad for the industry. According to the most recent survey from the Game Developers Conference, 52 percent of respondents said that gen AI is having a “negative” impact on the games industry, versus just 7 percent who viewed the technology as “positive.” Perhaps most startling is how the negative outlook has grown over the years: in 2024, just 18 percent of those surveyed viewed the tech as a negative, and that number jumped to 30 percent in 2025. Now it’s up to more than half.
GDC surveyed 2,300 “game industry professionals” to get these results, and the demographics are primarily male (64 percent), white (67 percent), and based in the United States (54 percent). The organizers admit that this makeup is “far from truly representative of the global community, and we know more work is needed.” (You can check out the full report right here.)
However, the results still provide some fascinating insight into how actual developers feel about the AI, at the same time that the leaders of major publishers like EA and Krafton are espousing its virtues (and as Larian has had to clarify how it’s using the technology). As for how much the gen AI is actually being used in the industry, 36 percent of those surveyed said they utilize it as part of their jobs, while 64 percent said they don’t. The majority of those who do use gen AI said they use the tech for research and brainstorming (81 percent), as well as administrative tasks like email (47 percent). But some did admit to using AI for more development-oriented tasks, including prototyping (35 percent), testing or debugging (22 percent), and asset generation (19 percent). Only 5 percent of that group said they use gen AI on “player-facing features.”
The other major topic broached in the survey was the persistent layoffs and studio closures that have ravaged the industry over the last few years. In the 2025 survey, one in 10 developers said they had been laid off within the last year. This year, the numbers were similar, with 17 percent of respondents saying they had been laid off in the last 12 months, while a whopping 28 percent had been laid off within the last two years. Naturally, this had led to an aura of uncertainty; 23 percent of those surveyed said that they expected more layoffs in the next year, while 30 percent are unsure.
The survey also questioned a small number of those in the educational space — more than 100 educators and 50 students, according to GDC — and unsurprisingly the outlook isn’t very positive. 60 percent of those surveyed said that they expect the current state of the industry to make it difficult for new students to get jobs. “Most of my students will not have a career in game development,” said one anonymous educator in Michigan.
GDC itself kicks off this year on March 9th in San Francisco, and it’s likely these two issues will be a major topic throughout.
