This year the phrase I started using was "deprofessionalization" since the overall mood from my perspective was one of: corporate sponsors were largely absent, AI hype was already on its way out and merited little discussion, indies were not trying to chase after publisher money with a pitch since that funding has dried up, international presence was torpedoed and consisted mostly of "paid by my company or school to be here", lots of the attendees had found the day job and are in a hobbyist role right now. The only person I talked to with a growing company was doing retro remasters. The highly structured creator-consumer divide from not so long ago has blurred into content creation, modding, local events and niche scenes. Graduates from game schools have (mostly) prepared themselves to seek an entrepreneurial route.

There was still a density of action and conversation to be had, but with relatively less of a frenetic need to advance career goals backstopping it all.

#gdc2026 #gdc #gamedev