Game developers are tired of their bosses’ AI initiatives

Video game The industry has been in a turbulent place over the past year, with studio closures and job security top of mind for developers. Increased layoffs With seemingly no end, it paints a bleak picture for developers, while companies are busy pouring money into it Artificial intelligence initiatives.

According to a new report from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference, 52 percent of developers surveyed said they worked at companies that were using… Generative artificial intelligence On their games. Of the 3,000 people surveyed, nearly half said they were concerned about the technology’s impact on the industry, and a growing number reported feeling negatively about AI in general. The “State of the Gaming Industry” report, released Tuesday, is one of a series of surveys conducted each year by GDC organizers ahead of their annual conference. This year’s event will be held in San Francisco in March.

The GDC’s 2025 report comes on the heels of two turbulent years for the industry. Even like games Astro Bot, Hell Divers 2and Balatro Found success and studios Like Microsoft And Sony has it Laid-off staff and Canceled games. Amid the mix of cultural and economic factors affecting the industry, developers are also still dealing with a company’s enthusiasm for the technology that some find ethically troubling.

“I have a PhD in AI, and have worked on developing some algorithms used in generative AI,” one developer wrote. “I deeply regret how naively I presented my contributions.”

About 30% of developers who responded to the survey said that their feelings towards artificial intelligence are negative, compared to 18% last year. Just 13% believe AI has had a positive impact on games, down from 21% in 2024. “No matter how you put it, generative AI is not a great replacement for real people and quality will suffer,” another developer said. He wrote in their response.

For developers, AI has possible To help with many tasks, participants said, including programming, conceptual art and 3D model creation, but when asked about the uses they saw for AI in industry, “the word used most often in their answers was ‘none,’” GDC organizers said. books.

In theory, generative AI could help some developers lighten their workloads. This does not happen. Instead, developers are said to be working longer hours than they have in years. 13% of survey respondents reported working more than 51 hours per week, compared to 8% of respondents last year. While these extra hours can be attributed to developers putting in extra work to make up for colleagues lost during mass industry-wide layoffs in 2024, many have expressed concerns that AI was also a factor. “We should be using generative AI to help people be faster at their jobs, not lose them,” one worker wrote.

layoffs, Industry story Over the past few years, still It poses a big problem. “Survive until ’25“, the slogan of struggling developers, hardly helped those who lost their jobs. According to the survey, one in 10 developers were laid off within the past year. There was also an increase in “N/A” answers: “The question did not apply because they were already laid off or unemployed. the job. In other words, it wasn’t a concern now because, in a way, it had already happened to them.