Game developer conference organizers have Share the results This year’s game industry survey – intended to provide an overview of current trends and feelings among developers – revealed, among other things, that one in ten respondents will lose their jobs in 2024, following the devastating wave of layoffs seen throughout the industry. .

This year’s game industry report surveyed more than 3,000 developers across various titles, but layoffs are once again in mind as industry-wide job cuts in 2023 continue into 2024 – with figures indicating 13,000 workers lost their jobs last year. According to the GDC survey, not only one in ten developers reported being directly laid off, 41 percent of respondents said they felt the impact of the layoff in some way. The area reported to be most affected by the layoffs was game narration at 19 percent.

Respondents cited restructuring, reduced revenue, and marketing changes as the main reasons for job cuts, with many blaming “specific issues such as the growth of the Covid-era, increased production costs, decreased player interest, unrealistic expectations for the ‘next big impact’. Bad leadership and mismanagement” as reasons why hiring continues to affect the gaming industry.

Elsewhere, unions remain a talking point, with a fifth of respondents saying they wanted to discuss unionization in the past 12 months. 29 percent said their company supported the discussion, while 19 percent were united and 12 percent were opposed to unions.

GDC also asked respondents about their average working hours, with 57 percent saying they work 40 hours or less per week. 13 percent of those surveyed work more than 51 hours a week – up from 8 percent last year – with two-thirds of their hours being stressful for themselves.

As for the platform developers are currently focusing their attention on, the PC once again leads the charge by a significant margin, with 80 percent of those surveyed saying they are developing PC games – up from 66 percent last year. While GDC can’t confidently say the reason for this increase, it predicts a link to the popularity of Steam Deck – with 44 percent showing interest in Valve’s platform.

In terms of console, 38 percent of developers report that they are creating games for PS5, compared to 34 percent for Xbox Series X / S, while 20 percent are developing for Switch. For Nintendo’s recently revealed Switch 2, eight percent of developers said they were developing for the platform – the same number reported in last year’s GDC survey.

Respondents also shared their thoughts on live streaming games – another area making headlines at the moment, as studios continue to pull the plug on titles that are complex or still in development. 42 percent of those surveyed said they are not interested in working in live game services, but those who value them do so for a variety of reasons: “Not only financially, but also in player experience and community building”.

Those less enthusiastic blamed “declining player interest, stagnation of creativity, predatory practices and micro-transactions, and the risk of developer burnout”, as well as concerns about market saturation and the difficulty of building a sustainable player base.

And for AI, 30 percent of respondents said they believe AI is having a negative impact on the industry – up 12 percent from last year – with many shared concerns about “intellectual property theft, power consumption, quality reduction from AI-generated content, potential bias within AI programs.” and regulatory issues.” Despite these reservations, 52 percent said their companies have implemented manufacturing AI – With respondents in business and finance mostly using AI tools (51 percent), followed by productivity and team leadership (41 percent), and community, marketing, and PR (39 percent).

The report of the game industry of GDC can be Download from its website (Registration is required) and is well worth reading, offering a fascinating picture of the current developer sentiment and trends following the most challenging year for the industry.