GDC says companies that don’t attend ‘send a message they don’t care about developers’
GDC will undergo a revamp in 2026 as a ‘Festival of Gaming’
The Game Developers Conference has said that leading industry companies who choose to skip the event are sending a message to developers that they “don’t care”.
Last year’s GDC, which is held annually in San Francisco, saw engine makers Unity and Epic cut back their presence, while Sony did not appear at the event’s expo area.
Speaking to The Game Business, GDC’s executive director of innovation and growth, Mark DeLoura, said the companies’ absence was “noticeable” and claimed they risked alienating developers.
“As an attendee, I was disappointed not to see Unity and Unreal on the show floor,” he said. “I worked for Sony and I started the Sony booth 25 years ago… not to see Sony on the show floor is just disappointing. I really feel like you’ve got so many developers there, you’ve got to have a front door.
“Of course, these companies are going to have their own events, they have their own communities they need to foster, and they can talk about things that are more NDAd at their own events that they may not want to do at a public show. But you’re not going to find the independent developer who doesn’t already know somebody at your shop, unless you’re there with your door open.”
He added: “Isn’t that the purpose of conferences? Meeting new people. You’ve decided you don’t want to meet new people, I guess. I can’t understand that. There’s more to it than that, of course. There are costs, etcetera. But developers get the vibe. If you’re not there, or appear not to be there, are they sure that you care about them? That’s what I don’t understand.
“I would say this, because that’s why I got Sony involved in GDC in 2001. We needed to be there. We needed to be there for the developers. It’s important.”
GDC is undergoing a revamp in 2026, calling itself a “Festival of Gaming” and offering cheaper tickets. DeLoura told TGB the GDC board had discussed the possibility of moving the event away from San Francisco, which is often criticised as overly expensive, but ultimately decided to remain in the city.
“Everybody brings it up,” DeLoura says. “It’s absolutely something we talk about. For [doing the event in] the US… it is the center of the game industry. Wouldn’t you want to be there? And don’t more game developers have the opportunity to come because we’re there?
“Yes, and… San Francisco is expensive. It’s a pricey place to be. People are concerned about the city’s safety, which has definitely improved in recent years.”
