The Game Developers Conference (GDC) recently released the results of its 13th annual State of the Game Industry Survey, revealing that 41% of game developers surveyed were impacted by layoffs in the last 12 months. This is 35% higher than last year.
11% of the developers surveyed reported experiencing layoffs personally, with the most impacted role being in the narrative field with 19% being laid off, and the least impacted role being in business and finance with 6% being laid off.
Even more shockingly, 19% of developers reported that they were given no reason for the layoffs happening at their company, although developers themselves shared their suspicions. The most frequently mentioned included Covid-era overexpansion, rising production costs, declining player interest, unrealistic expectations for the “next big hit,” and poor leadership and mismanagement.
Among the other learnings in the report was the usage of generative AI in game development. 16% of developers reported that their company doesn’t allow usage of generative AI, while 9% said it is mandated in their workplace. This marks an overall increase in generative AI adoption with only 2% of developers reporting a mandate last year.
In terms of the reception towards generative AI, 13% of developers stated that generative AI is having a positive impact on the industry, while 30% of developers stated that generative AI is having a negative impact on the industry.
The report also touched on working hours for game developers with 57% of developers working for 40 hours per week or less, and 13% of developers working more than 51 hours per week. This is up 8% from last year.
The 2024 survey gathered results from more than 3,000 game developers from 86 countries. It’s worth noting that the majority of the respondents were based in the United States (58%) and results as a whole may overly represent developers in the West and not the global community at large.
