Absolute state of the union

What this year's GDC says about the present and future of video game development

GDC will have wrapped up by the time you read this, such is the nature of print publishing. But this annual gathering of video-game developers remains a useful barometer of more evergreen concerns: what’s on the mind of developers today, and where the industry might be heading tomorrow. Rarely has the gap between the two been wider than it appeared this year.

No moment encapsulates that better, perhaps, than the ‘GDScream’: a protestcum-group-therapy session held in the Yerba Buena Gardens outside the official venue and organised by former Epic Games employees Scott Jon Siegel and Caryl Shaw. “The game industry is falling apart around us, and we’re all flocking to San Francisco for a week to pretend like this is fine,” read the event’s homepage. “Let’s take a minute where we all stop pretending, and express just how it feels to be a game developer in 2024. Join us for a collective moment of catharsis, camaraderie, and caterwauling." Dozens of show attendees - among them developers who had lost their jobs in the recent waves of industry layoffs, and others feeling the bitter impact of their colleagues being cast aside gathered to bellow their collective frustrations into the California sunshine. Speaking to PC Gamer, Siegel cited as motivation not only issues within the industry itself but also the rise of harassment and discrimination towards the game development community from so-called 'anti-woke' groups.