A new GDC survey shows that game developers’ ire toward the use of generative AI in game development is going up.
Every year, the organization behind GDC Festival of Gaming releases the State of the Game Industry Report, featuring insights from thousands of developers around the video game industry. For the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report, 2,300 were surveyed for the latest one and were asked about a variety of topics, including generative AI.
Overall, 36% of the game developers surveyed used generative AI (828 people), with “business professionals” and “upper management” using it more than your rank-and-file game developers. ChatGPT was the most commonly used external AI tool, and the technology was mostly used for “research and brainstorming.”
