Despite the considerable controversy and criticism surrounding the use of generative AI by game developers and publishers, the latest report from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) reveals that up to 40% of active developers in the industry use these contentious tools in their work, representing a 4 percentage point increase from the previous year's report.
This data comes from the latest "State of the Game Industry Report" released by GDC. The report collected feedback from over 2,300 respondents, primarily professionals in the gaming industry, including developers, producers, marketers, executives, and investors.
The report indicates that among developers using generative AI, 57% utilize it for "text generation, research, early prototyping, programming, and presentation creation." There is a significant difference in usage between AAA studios and independent developers: 27% of AAA developers stated they were "encouraged or required" to use AI tools, compared to only 9% of independent developers. Given that many frontline developers have publicly opposed generative AI, this outcome is not surprising—users of these tools are mostly concentrated in "business operations and services departments, pure mobile game studios, and free-to-play game developers."
There are also differences in the acceptance of AI tools among developers of different age groups. The report shows that among respondents aged 45 and older, more than half (54%) stated they use AI tools, an 8 percentage point increase from last year's survey results. The usage rate among male developers (45%) is also higher than that among female developers (33%).
More notably, the proportion of respondents who believe AI has a negative impact on the gaming industry (55%) is even higher than the proportion of those who actually use AI. This suggests that the industry as a whole remains cautious about AI rather than blindly adopting it. It is worth noting that the percentage of respondents wary of this technology increased by 1 percentage point compared to last year, meaning that more people now believe AI has had a negative effect on the industry compared to the same period in 2025. This trend may be due to widespread layoffs in the gaming industry—often mentioned alongside AI deployment; the flood of "low-quality AI-generated works" on Steam, which squeezes out traditional developers; or the numerous failed projects of poor quality that obviously used AI assets.
"I entered the creative industry not to hand over creative rights to algorithms," said a UK respondent when explaining why they do not use generative AI tools. A respondent from California stated, "I joined the industry to collaborate with creative people, not to have senior chatbots piece together ideas from laid-off creators." Another respondent from Minnesota commented, "I believe no one should read text not written by humans, and no one should view content not created by humans."
The application of generative AI in the gaming industry has always been controversial. However, as giants like Epic and Microsoft continue to invest heavily in this technology, the divide between developers who support and those who oppose AI appears to be widening.