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GDC: Pandemic is clobbering indie game devs and freelancers

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 7 min

Small game development studios and freelancers are having a tough time coping with the pandemic, even though the video game industry hasn’t been hit as hard as other industries, according to a survey of 2,500 game developers by the Game Developers Conference.

Smaller game makers reported challenges such as canceled projects, delays in launching games, a small number of layoffs, quality of life issues, and other challenges, said GDC general manager Katie Stern in an interview with GamesBeat.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.