Game developers are overwhelmingly concerned about the ethics of using ai. The organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) have released their annual survey on the state of the gaming industryin which 84 percent of more than 3,000 respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about the ethics of using generative ai.
The survey results explained why developers are concerned, citing reasons including the potential for ai to replace workers and exacerbate layoffs or expose developers to potential copyright infringement complaints. Developers are also concerned that ai programs could extract data from their own games without their consent.
The GDC survey also broke down developer sentiment toward ai by job type. Respondents in more technical fields like marketing, programming, and general business thought ai would have a positive impact on their jobs, while those with creative job types like art, storytelling, and quality control felt ai would have a negative impact. in their jobs.
“(ai) should be used to upskill, not reduce the workforce.”
“I think completely replacing someone's job is a genuine concern,” reads one anonymous response. “It should be used to improve skills, not reduce the workforce.”
In addition to ai, developers also had strong feelings regarding the industry's layoff crisis, how return-to-work mandates are impacting morale, and how the recent Unity runtime debacle is impacting the choice of engine. game from the developers.
The choice of video game engine software was one of the main topics covered in the survey. Thirty-three percent of respondents use Unity or Unreal Engine in development. Around the same time as the survey was being conducted, Unity announced its disastrous runtime fee policy, angering a large number of indie developers, before backtracking in some parts. In light of these events, a third of developers surveyed said they had considered changing or had already changed game engine software, with news about Unity's pricing model being one of the main motivating reasons.
“We've thought about switching to Godot, or creating our own (game engine), so we don't have to worry about shady business practices or the whims of shareholders,” reads an anonymous response cited in the survey.
As employer concerns about the pandemic subside, companies are instituting return-to-office (RTO) mandates, which some developers believe are having a negative impact on morale and the industry as a whole.
More than a quarter of developers have some type of mandatory return to office policy. Of that quarter, 40 percent reported working at a AAA studio versus 16 percent at independent studios. While return-to-office policies range from a full five-day work week to a hybrid schedule, the survey found that having any type of RTO mandated led to developer dissatisfaction.
“The vast majority opposed a mandatory RTO for 3 days a week, but company leadership felt they knew better,” reads one anonymous response. “Waves and waves of resignations, loss of morale. This is because we have shown that we can create a game from scratch, while working from home during the pandemic, and people don't understand why testing is not enough.
In May of last year, Activision Blizzard imposed a return-to-office policy that caused a similar situation. talent exodus.
More than a third of respondents reported that they were affected by layoffs, either personally or at their company. However, this survey was conducted in September 2023, just as Epic Games announced it would be laying off more than 800 employees and before the layoffs at Unity. Studies by the Embracer groupand Bungie. Fifty-six percent of respondents feel that layoffs are coming to their own studios, and according to respondents, the preponderance of layoffs is a result of the “post-pandemic course correction.”
“Studios grew too fast during the pandemic and people are spending less money on games during a cost of living crisis,” reads one anonymous response.
Dom Tait, research director at Omdia, GDC's research partner for the survey, wrote that the current wave of layoffs comes from employers adjusting spending levels to return to their pre-pandemic levels.
“However,” Tait wrote in the survey, “with the forecast returning to steady growth through 2027, this should present a more stable picture for employment levels going forward.”
