There’s a lot to be excited about in the gaming industry, as new awesome games are constantly being released. But the sad reality is that game development and the industry in general are in a very tough spot.
A new report, GDC’s State of the Game Industry: November 2026, illustrates this unfortunate sentiment and is quite depressing to read through. The top two topics in it are industry layoffs and generative AI, and yeah, that sounds about right when it comes to everybody’s mood inside game dev these days.
Citing people who work in the games industry surveyed from across the world (but mostly the US), GDC also pulled from a pool of 900 laid-off game workers to “dive deeper into their lived experiences.” And here’s the experience: a whopping 68 percent of those laid off from AAA studios were affected in the past year, while 27 percent of them have sent 100 or more job applications since being let go, and 54 percent of them are still unemployed.
And when it comes to sentiment within studios, things are looking and feeling bleak as a result of everything that’s been happening over the past few years, as evidenced by this chart:
A lot of that may have to do with AI usage in the industry, how much it’s being used, and how it’s threatening to take jobs. There’s no good answer for AI in game dev, but most surveyed agree that it should stay in non-creative use only.
But in general, 40 percent of those surveyed say that they use generative AI tools as part of their job, up from 36 percent last year, and 55 percent say that it’s having a negative impact on the industry.
The survey states that “55 percent of game industry professionals think generative AI is having a negative impact on the game industry, unchanged from last year’s 54 percent” and “workers in quality assurance and community support (76 percent) held the most unfavorable views, followed by game design (65 percent), visual and technical arts (65 percent), and audio (57 percent).” Meanwhile, 35% said, “generative AI is having a mixed impact on the game industry, while eight percent said it’s having a positive impact.”
And even with AI, work hours are getting hectic for many: 53 percent said they work over 40 hours weekly, with 13 percent saying they work 51 hours or more, on average, per week.
If you’d like to read the full report, check out the GDC website for all the detailed info.
