Watch this space for ongoing coverage of the event, which runs March 9-13
This week, people from all over the global games industry converge in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference, now in its 37th year. This year, the event has a slightly different name — GDC Festival of Gaming — and a slightly tweaked focus to match. Though it remains an event for industry professionals to network, make deals, and share deep-dive presentations about the development process of recent games, the organizers of this year’s show hope to appeal to a broader slice of the game development community beyond the C-suite and studio bigwigs, with more varied panels, discussions and events.
There are several emerging and ongoing trends we’ll be keeping an eye on at this year’s show, including the continued emergence of AI technology in game development, increasing costs of development and hardware, and a more in-depth look at Microsoft’s next-gen hardware, Project Helix. GDC Festival of Gaming runs from March 9-13, so be sure to check back here for all of Polygon’s coverage of this year’s event.
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The first great game at GDC is a punk rock Doom clone about destroying capitalism
My favorite thing about attending GDC every year is the chance to be a fly on the wall as video game developers discuss the state of the industry and help one another navigate it. My second favorite thing about it is discovering some extremely rad games. The show has only just started and I’ve already gotten the latter, thanks to Cybrlich and the Death Cult of Labor.
I discovered the indie oddity at a Day of the Devs event that took place the night before GDC officially kicked off. There, hundreds of players gathered to check out a diverse array of demos for upcoming indie games. I played everything from a game about a tanuki delivering packages on a BMX bike to a deconstruction of Tetris where you turn blocks into tournament brackets, but Cybrlich caught my eye the moment I walked into the event.
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5 trends we’re looking out for at GDC 2026
Every year, the video game industry gathers in San Francisco for an all-important event: Game Developers Conference. The show brings together professionals from all over the world for a week of panels, demos, and closed-door meetings that can determine who gets funding to make their next project. It may not be as consumer-facing as E3 (RIP), but it can shape the industry’s upcoming trends — and determine what games get a shot at life.
This year’s GDC is especially crucial for a struggling industry. As hardware costs rise, AI seeps into the space, and uncertainty clouds major platform holders, developers will gather at the show in search of a sustainable path forward. Even GDC itself is at a meta crossroads, as this year’s show will attempt to bring in more gaming fans as part of its expanded “Festival of Gaming.”
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