“A tale of two halves”: The Mobile Mavens weigh in on GDC 2026

• “GDC may have been smaller this year than in previous years, but the atmosphere was as vibrant as ever.” – Haz Dulull.
• “GDC needed a restart. And it got one.” – Oscar Clark.
• “The Expo was considerably smaller this year, which makes you wonder if it might disappear completely.” – Martine Spanns.

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GDC 2026 has just wrapped up and this year’s event marked a shift with its rebrand to the GDC Festival of Gaming. 

Alongside that is the wider context of attendance, which was largely impacted this year by ongoing political tensions in the United States, which led some potential attendees to reconsider travel, as well as escalating conflict in Iran and across the Middle East, which made it physically impossible for others to make the journey. 

To get a clearer picture of how the show went this year, we spoke to our Mobile Mavens who attended to hear their thoughts on GDC 2026.

It was easy to notice there were far less attendees this year, but I am unsure if the official numbers paint the full picture. I know quite a few people who would normally get the affordable Expo Pass, but since that option is no longer available they decided not to get any pass this year. Networking is not done at the Expo anyway, but in hotel lobbies and at side events. 

The Expo was considerably smaller this year, which makes you wonder if it might disappear completely. 

GDC has always attracted 2 types of crowds that do not mix: People who go for the content, and people who go for the business meetings. That gap has only increased with this new setup. 

I don’t think the people behind GDC expected an immediate full embrace of their new Festival setup. I guess you could say it has a lot in common with launching a game: Release, test, reiterate, improve. I hope they do continue improving. When E3 disappeared, GDC was there as an alternative. But if GDC disappears, what Northern American alternative is there?

GDC may have been smaller this year than in previous years, but the atmosphere was as vibrant as ever, fuelled by optimism, momentum, and a shared drive to keep pushing games forward , with many indie games in development and being signed too!

I was out for PGC SF and GDC last week and it was amazing.

But a tale of two halves.

The politics before I went held up a lot of non-US people from attending; and with the conflict in Iran and wider middle-east which should not be ignored. It made it a difficult choice for many reasons. 

This also had practical implications as a number of folks, including two of my panelists on the Community Clubhouse track were literally unable to make it due to flight restrictions.

But despite being smaller the quality of folks attending was fantastic. All the talks I witnessed were busy. For both the Community Clubhouse track on Tuesday and the Microtalk on fundraising (Thanks to Paul Kilduff-Taylor; Gina Jackson; John Graham and Ian Hardingham for having me on that) on the last slot of Friday we had full rooms. And loads of folks wanting to ask questions afterwards.

I still had all the meetings with folks who didn’t have badges too… In fact I had meetings with potential partners, old friends, and great prospects almost every hour of the week.

As well as that I interviewed a bunch of folks at the show, and whilst there were skeptics and optimists I think that talking to Kate Edwards on Friday summed it up for me. GDC needed a restart. And it got one. If you think of it that way then this was a great event.

Folks can check out my LinkedIn for interviews I recorded over the show including with Dave Bradley and Craig Chapple from PGBiz.

GDC was noticeably smaller this year, with very few attendees actually exploring the show floor. Instead, the vast majority of activity was inside events and meetings outside the main venue. 

This actually mirrors the trend for B2B conferences across industries where companies receive far more ROI from individual meetings or smaller events with communities and important target customers. 

The consumer gaming shows will likely keep their wattage, but the nature of GDC has fundamentally changed, and probably for the better.

Attendance level at GDC was lower this year, but I personally feel both I and my partners were able to reserve time for critical business discussions more than perhaps usually. Discussions focused a lot on execution and actionable outcomes.