GDC have released their 2026 State of the Game Industry report, comprising survey results from thousands of quizzed developers on the craft and business of gamesmaking. As in the 2025 report, this year’s responses signal a growing discontent with generative AI tools, with opposing sentiments tipping into simple majority status for the first time: 52% now say GenAI is having a negative impact on the industry, up from 30% in 2025 and 18% in 2024.
Before we start celebrating the moral arc of the universe, this opinion-hardening appears to correlate with neither an overall decrease not increase in the adoption of GenAI tech. Asked if they or someone in their company used these tools, 52% said yes and 35% said no, both unchanged from their 2025 survey levels. However, optimistic views are becoming harder to come by, with the percentage of respondents who thought GenAI is having a positive impact dropping from 13% in 2025 to a mere 7% in 2026. Presumably that’s made up of Tim Sweeney, Larian’s Swen Vincke, half the people on my LinkedIn feed, and that one dentist out of ten who doubts toothpaste.
