It’s official. The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is changing to become GDC Festival of Gaming.
It’s no secret that GDC 2025 was not the most successful event. It had a lot of empty places, like a smaller show floor without major companies and empty halls on the last day of the five-day event in March 2025. Informa, the owner of GDC, said attendance was flat, but it was clear that people weren’t engaging as much with the San Francisco event.
And so the company has been working to reimagine and reinvigorate GDC, and it’s come up with the new name, GDC Festival of Gaming, to reflect that, said Mark DeLoura (yes, my podcast partner), GDC’s new executive director of innovation and growth, in an interview with GamesBeat.
GDC teased this name a few weeks ago and it generated some incorrect assumptions. Some people associated the word “festival” as a reference to fan events, like PAX West in Seattle. This is incorrect, DeLoura said. The business-to-business event will still be for professionals or those studying to be professional game developers, he said.
“I think different people have different interpretations of what ‘festival’ means. I think of festivals just being something that includes both an expo and technical content which we’ve always had so to some extent. We’ve always been a festival. You can think about the Independent Games Festival which was started [inside GDC] in like [1998],” DeLoura said.
He added, “A lot of people, when they saw the word ‘festival,’ they thought it would be more like PAX or something more consumer-y with less talks. I just want to emphasize that’s not the case. We’ve got the same amount of talks planned, the same board planning them. And it’s by developers for developers. It’s not a consumer event.”
The times are a changin’
But there will be change.
“What we are talking about is having something that’s much broader, embraces the city more, has things outside of the bounds of Moscone [Center], and has more engagement as well,” DeLoura said. “It’s not just show floor booths, but interactive things for people to do, in addition to all the great stuff we had before.”
But GDC does consider the Festival of Gaming to be something very different from the past. DeLoura said that the event will have lower ticket prices (45% lower than the all-access pass last year) so that people do not have to feel left out of some of the show.
In the past, there were separate prices if people wanted to go to the expo floor only or extra fees if they went to the conference. This evidently turned into thinner crowds than desired inside the core of GDC. Now GDC will have a lower price — which I would estimate is $1,200 vs the $2,200 all-access pass last year — that allows people to participate more broadly across the event.
There will likely be specific, cheaper passes for academics, indies from smaller studios, or educators.
There were also many side events — some of them held by organizations that held them for years — outside of the GDC throughout San Francisco. Now, GDC Festival of Gaming wants to embrace more partners and bring them inside GDC. Or rather, as DeLoura said, it will now reach outside the walls of the convention center and embrace side events, possibly through more formal partnerships or by bringing them inside the convention hall.
“The way that I think of it is that we’re like blowing out the walls of Moscone and just turning this into a huge event that embraces San Francisco and I’m excited about that,” DeLoura said.
The idea is GDC Festival of Gaming is a transformed event that will meet today’s broader, interconnected games industry, bringing together game-makers, publishers, distributors, investors, founders, technologists, toolmakers, marketers, educators, and media in a single week of game-changing connection, discovery, and learning.
Asked why GDC is making this change, DeLoura said, “The industry has changed so much. The industry has always been changing, but I think in just recent years, we’ve all become more aware of it. We’ve watched, especially since the pandemic, the big bump in sales in the industry and now we all know it’s been tough times in the game industry [more recently].”
He added, “That causes us all to change a little bit how we’re doing business. And so I think that also naturally reflects on the conference itself and thinking that we can’t keep doing the conference the same way we’ve always done the conference. When the industry is changing, the conference has to change. That was the motivating force.”
Built on the storied legacy of the original Game Developers Conference, the debut of GDC Festival of Gaming coincides with the event’s 40th edition. The festival offers the same
market-defining rigor and depth that has long made GDC essential, now amplified with exciting new perspectives and powerful pathways for collaboration across every stage of a game’s lifecycle.
“In a time of great change, we can build walls or build bridges — and the game industry has always thrived by coming together,” said DeLoura. “The GDC Festival of Gaming strengthens those connections, celebrating creativity and supporting everyone who brings games to life, from napkin sketch to global launch.”
Informed and inspired by feedback from the community and across the ecosystem, GDC Festival of Gaming is an industry celebration across five days, with nightly activities, and offerings for everyone from all corners of the industry, with redesigned formats that move creativity, businesses and careers forward.
“We are excited to reveal the blueprint for GDC Festival of Gaming, celebrating the vital interconnection between creators, leaders, and partners that drive the industry forward.” said Nina Brown, president of GDC, in a statement. “This new era is rooted in dialogue with our community. And it’s only the beginning.”
“The vibe was a little flat last year,” he said. “We have to recognize that was the case.”
But he noted many people were at the nearby hotels — the Intercontinental, the W and the St. Regis. There were people on the lawn in the Yerba Buena Gardens or at parties. And these places in past years were even busier, with crowds staying for five days.
“That made me ponder,” DeLoura said. “What is it we need to focus on more to make sure those people are having a good experience during the course of the week.”
The idea of the festival is to flesh out all five days so they can keep the crowds there for a full five days, rather than having most of the energy and crowds concentrated in two or three days of the week.
More partnerships coming
As far as working with partners, the event staff is having those conversations. One individual bought out the nearby carousel and made it free for GDC attendees. GDC ought to have a way to let people know about that effort, DeLoura said.
“If you’re going to do that, we should find a way to let the attendees at GDC know,” DeLoura said. “If you’re doing something that’s benefiting our community, we should find some way to collaborate.”
As for GDC parties outside of the official event, the GDC wants to know if they will be safe for attendees and then it can consider whether to publicize that event or affiliate with it in some way, he said. Events will be handled case by case, but the overall purpose is to broaden the community that comes to GDC and make it more valuable for all.
“To me, part of what defines a festival is that it’s a big tent, right? And it’s not about what we, as the conference providers, say is the festival. It’s about the community and what the community wants and finds valuable,” he said. “We’re hoping that that helps more people to come to the show and interact with the official expo floor.”
What’s new for sure
Here’s a peek at what’s new:
● Designed for Networking: The need to connect across the industry is now more critical than ever. Match in the app before you land. Set up time in the lounges. Jump into Speed Networking. Tap the citywide GDC Affiliate Program. Senior leaders can use GamePlan for facilitated, high-intent 1:1s that spark partnerships and deals. GDC Festival of Gaming becomes a can’t-miss hub for meeting the right people and building lasting opportunities.
● Festival Hall, Reimagined for Discovery: Open Wednesday–Friday, the Hall is organized into five neighborhoods: Game Development, Future Tech, Indie & Education, International, Monetization & Player Engagement. Each features demos, micro-sessions, and places to sit down and talk. Faster paths to your people and your next partner.
● Unified Content Program Across Five Days: GDC Festival of Gaming offers attendees a full week content journey. Contemporary content design emphasizes cross-disciplinary learning and collaboration, while maintaining GDC’s world-class standard. The new program goes beyond discipline-specific learning for game makers, with content for executives, marketers, independent studios, investors, founders, product managers, performers, external development agencies, and all others who play a role in fueling the interconnected ecosystem. Alongside legendary postmortems, technical sessions and pioneering advocacy, expect interactive content all week that connects disciplines and opens commercial doors through the reimagined summits, specialty series, mixers, workshops, fireside chats, forums, roundtables and demos.
DeLoura said there could be more programming about work between disciplines, like how programmers and artists work together, or about how art and marketing work together.
● GamePlan (invite-only; Game Changer Pass required): The Festival’s deal engine. Brings qualified executives, decision-makers, and innovators together for pre-scheduled, facilitated 1:1 meetings that move business forward, building new customer and partner relationships, reconnecting with key contacts, generating leads, pitching ideas, exploring funding, evaluating emerging tech, and engaging with media.
● Luminaries Speaker Series (requires Game Changer Pass): A three-day, executive-level program at the Blue Shield of California Theater at YBCA, delivered by influential voices across games and adjacent industries. Strategy over tactics for leaders setting portfolios, roadmaps, and budgets.
● New Pass Structure, More Value: Festival Pass — Full week access to world-class sessions, Festival Hall, networking programs, and nightly celebrations – at a price 45% lower than 2025’s All-Access.
● GDC Nights: Every night, Monday-Thursday, the Festival delivers a true celebration of the game industry, including an Opening Night Social Mixer, Austin Wintory’s Developer’s Concert, the Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards, and the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA). Music, mixers, and shared moments that keep the conversation – and the
community – going all week.
DeLoura said the GDC used to have keynote talks years ago — such as some legendary talks by Bill Gates unveiling the Xbox prototype in 2000 and when Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, gave memorable keynotes at GDC in 2005, 2006 and 2011.
The GDC is planning to take over the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to provide a good venue for such talks. DeLoura said that the GDC Festival of Gaming could bring back more keynote speeches by designers of triple-A franchises or others who could be interesting to a crowd of game developers.
GamesBeat itself did an event in 2025 based on some debates. DeLoura said such events could be integrated into the official content program or maybe even be done on the show floor. Podcasters could come and do their thing on the show floor.
In the evenings, there could be multiple big events. There could be an opening night mixer, or a concert with an orchestra playing video game music. The awards could be split into different evenings with the Game Developers Choice Awards on one night and the Independent Games Festival Awards on another night.
On Friday, GDC Festival of Gaming will also try to figure out content that is appropriate for the last day of the show.
“I’ll never forget the conversation I had with a friend who’s an executive who said, ‘You know I spend my entire time at the show now going from one person’s hotel room to another person’s hotel room to another person’s hotel room,” DeLoura said.
Those people, whether they are executives or belong to a specific community, should be served better with a place where they can go. The new festival will focus on these executives via a “Luminaries Program.” They will have space for meetings.
“We’re talking about having more content for them as well. We’ve seen the content that’s done well at GamesBeat. We’ve seen the content that’s done well at Dice Summit. So we’re thinking about what’s appropriate for that group. It’s something we’re doing too,” DeLoura said.
There will also be a Game Changer Pass — with everything in the Festival Pass, plus premium seating and lounges, fast-track entry to keynotes/concerts/awards, access to the Luminaries Speaker Series, eligibility for GamePlan, and GDC Vault access.
And there will be a Digital Pass — Online-only networking during the event and on-demand GDC Vault access after. The festival will also have application-based options – with support for early stage indies, start-ups, and academia so more of the ecosystem can be part of the week.
GDC Festival of Gaming takes place March 9 to March 13, 2026 in and around San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Registration is open now at the newly relaunched gdconf.com.
DeLoura said some big decisions have been made, but the event is a work in progress. And he noted, “The industry has changed. We’re going to continue working out more things and hope to continue to provide better and better value.”