Devcom, the big game developer conference starting on August 17 in Cologne, German, has published a survey of its speakers and found that 33% of respondents would like to see as little AI involvement in the development process as possible.
Devcom is Europe’s biggest game developer event, and I’ve attended it for many years.
The 100 Devcom speaker respondents (56%) also said “economic and political uncertainty” is the biggest challenge currently impacting development. And 46% believe “major platform holders” will shift focus toward “cloud and digital services” in the coming years.
Devcom 2025 will run in Cologne, Germany, at the Koelnmesse Confex Center — a brand new event center that opened last year — from August 17 to August 19, just before the beginning of Gamescom, the huge game expo that drew more than 335,000 visitors in 2024.
Stephan Reichart, head of Devcom, said in an interview with Gamescom that the event continues to build excitement with fresh program highlights and the release of key insights from this year’s speaker survey.
“I’m really happy about the feedback that we got so far,” Reichart said.
He noted that Devcom remains strong despite weakness at other expos or game events this year. The layoffs and studio closures have taken a toll, but it’s good for Devcom to have steady growth in its community in years past.
“We are benefiting from the good works we have done in past years,” Reichart said. “We are still adding things last minute. Things are really positive right now, and honestly I’m I guess we will see the best Devcom yet. So we have a fantastic speaker line up.”
More programming
Meanwhile, Devcom has added fresh content to its keynote stage program with two new sessions:
- Letters from Malevelon Creek: Narrative Design of the ‘Helldivers 2’ Galactic War by
Stephen Flowers (Arrowhead Game Studios) - My 25 Year Journey Through the Game Industry by Minh Le (Ultimo Ratio Games)
- 160 GB of Resistance: A ‘S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’ Post-Mortem by Ievgen Grygorovych & Mariia
Grygorovych (GSC Game Worlds) - Picking Up Things: First-Person Interactivity in ‘Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’ by Zeke Virant (MachineGames)
- “Viva La Game Dev: How a YouTube Empire Became Indie Game Gold,” featuring the creators behind popular videogame comedy group Viva La Dirt League
- “Mario Kart World: Beat the Pros”, a live audience challenge hosted by content
creators and pro players. Hosted by Tjan & DitoMido, featuring pro racers Bisalina (Lucina Hum) and WoloU Think you’re fast in Mario Kart? Time to prove it on stage! In this live-action challenge, audience members can jump into the race. If you beat both of our pros back-to-back, you’ll win a free Content Ticket to devcom 2026.
Speaker survey 2025 – More key results
The annual devcom Speaker Survey offers a unique, forward-looking snapshot of the industry’s mindset in the current year:
- What business model will dominate the near future?
Digital/physical premium games remain the most favored (27%), with paid subscriptions (20%) and Free-to-Play with in-game purchases (18%) also ranking high. - Is Early Access still viable? 96% believe it is – either broadly (37%) or within specific genres and communities (59%).
- Platform exclusivity is fading Only 6% believe exclusivity will remain a core strategy. Most expect limited (28%) or timed exclusives (34%) to become the norm, with 32% predicting exclusivity will become less common altogether.
- AI in development: where it works best most valuable use cases cited were code & production (32%) and art & animation (11%). Still, 33% preferred minimal AI involvement, indicating that the divide remains sharp.
- Biggest industry challenges: Top concerns included economic and political uncertainty (56 votes), market saturation (53 votes), and rising development costs (44 votes).
- Are large-scale digital showcases still worth it? Visibility was the key reason for 54% of respondents, who answered yes. However, 21% felt costs outweigh benefits, and 8% said they’re too crowded for real impact.
- Buying habits: digital vs physical — Digital formats dominate with 59% preferring them. Physical editions appeal mainly to collectors (22%), with a further 19% choosing physical by default.
- Cloud gaming outlook: The outlook is divided: while 45% think console/PC will remain dominant, another 46% expect major platform holders to shift toward cloud and digital-first services.
Partnerships
Devcom also has new partnerships with Meta, AWS, and Keywords (Community Clubhouse). Those companies will have large booths on the Devcom show floor, alongside dozens of other companies.
The program details are here. And side event details are here. Devcom is part of Gamesbranche (the German Games Industry Association and owner of the gamescom & devcom brands).
At last count, there were 300 speakers already confirmed and 350 sessions, the lineup features highly anticipated industry professionals, with more to come in the weeks ahead. A major change from last year is the sharp increase in interactive formats: the number of roundtables has tripled to meet growing demand. The show will have 35 content creators this year as well.
Among the newly announced highlights are sessions from Michel Nohra (Landfall Interactive) on reinventing RPG combat, Kate Kellogg (COO, Electronic Arts) on intuitive leadership, Zeke Virant (MachineGames) on designing the GRIP system for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Minh Le (Creator of Counter-Strike) on surviving and thriving for 25 years in the games industry, and Stephen Flowers (Arrowhead Game Studios) on the narrative design behind the Helldivers 2 Galactic War.
A leadership panel with executives from Arrowhead, Avalanche, Gearbox Montreal, and the Helldivers 2 team further headlines one of the main stages.
The latest speaker wave also includes prominent figures such as Anna Oporska-Szybisz (Bloober Team), Celia Hodent (Game UX Strategist), Cody Matthew Johnson (Emperia Sounds), Jon Everist (Composer), Kia Abhari (Riot Games), Kim Belair (Sweet Baby Inc), Kiki Finley (Point Blank Management), Lionel Cornelius (Riot Games), Matthew Strasser (Insomniac Games), and Wilbert Roget (Roget Music), all joining the #ddc2025 program.
Alongside the conference lineup, Devcom has unveiled an expanded side event schedule, offering premium networking, pitch opportunities, and community meetups for attendees at every career level.
Over time, Reichart said he would like to see more announcements of news at Devcom. The event has 16 stages and it decided not to have an overarching theme this year, Reichart said. Instead, there are 12 different main topics that are balanced through the event. But there is something heavy weighing on Reichart’s mind.
It’s the economy, stupid. Or not.
Reichart said he was thinking about his opening talk at Devcom.
“I stumbled upon a quote that an advisor of President Clinton made back when he was asked, How do you win the President’s election? And he said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ I learned this only a few weeks ago and I was thinking about this quote and how it’s the same for the game industry.”
He added, “We need to earn money. Of course, we need to run successful businesses, but without all those fantastic, creative people that we have in our industry, many of those games would never be so good and we often forget talking about that. We are always talking about numbers, talking about layoffs and this many people lost their job. I feel that this is wrong. I think that we have to take care of all the wonderful and very nerdish people that are working in our industry.”
Without their creativity, he said, the industry would not exists. In that way, it’s not just about the economy, stupid.
“Is Devcom just a conference? No, it’s not just a conference. It’s also a safe space for creative maniacs. It’s a safe space for people who love what they do, and it’s on us to create this very special atmosphere, year by year,” Reichart added.
And he said, “I recognized that we really always were serving three different levels. We were designing stuff for the first level, that is the basement. That is the foundation of everything we do. It’s the community. So we put so much effort in networking events, so much effort in parties and having a nice time at our events. And then the second layer is putting exactly the same amount of effort into an excellent program. So Nico Balletta and his team are doing fantastic job in bringing those most talented people of our industry on our stages. And then the third layer is creating an atmosphere where people can do business. And all of this comes together. So we have these networking VIP events happening at Devcom. We have the community events outside at the piazza.”
Reichart said, “So it’s not about economy. It’s a concert of community and great content, and not only business decisions.”