The 2026 State of the Game Industry survey report , conducted by the GDC Festival of Gaming, has revealed a number of interesting insights in to the current state of the game development landscape. The report showed that US game industry workers have a strong inclination towards unionization, with 82% of workers surveyed supporting unionization, while 13% were unsure, and only 5% opposed the idea. Up-and-coming talent, specifically those aged 18-24, were overwhelmingly in support of unionization, with zero respondents opposing the idea. This report comes shortly after unions representing Ubisoft workers in France called for a massive three-day international strike after the studio's ill-received cost-cutting measures and recent game cancellations.

On the topic of Generative AI, game workers were somewhat divided. 36% of industry workers reported using generative AI in their daily work, although it was far more common amongst those working at publishing companies (58%) than workers at development studios (30%). Despite moderate use of generative AI tools across various disciplines and workloads, like research and brainstorming (81%), email and code assistance (47%), and prototyping (35%), most professionals in the gaming industry think that generative AI is having a negative impact on the industry. 64% of visual and technical artists, 63% of game and narrative designers, and 59% of programmers think share their negative outlooks on the impact of generative AI on the industry, while only 7% of surveyed workers generative AI is having a positive impact on gaming.