AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the games | The VergeSkip to main contentThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.The VergeThe Verge logo.TechReviewsScienceEntertainmentAIPolicyHamburger Navigation ButtonThe homepageThe VergeThe Verge logo.Hamburger Navigation ButtonNavigation DrawerThe VergeThe Verge logo.Login / Sign UpcloseCloseSearchTechExpandAmazonAppleFacebookGoogleMicrosoftSamsungBusinessSee all techReviewsExpandSmart Home ReviewsPhone ReviewsTablet ReviewsHeadphone ReviewsSee all reviewsScienceExpandSpaceEnergyEnvironmentHealthSee all scienceEntertainmentExpandTV ShowsMoviesAudioSee all entertainmentAIExpandOpenAIAnthropicSee all AIPolicyExpandAntitrustPoliticsLawSecuritySee all policyGadgetsExpandLaptopsPhonesTVsHeadphonesSpeakersWearablesSee all gadgetsVerge ShoppingExpandBuying GuidesDealsGift GuidesSee all shoppingGamingExpandXboxPlayStationNintendoSee all gamingStreamingExpandDisneyHBONetflixYouTubeCreatorsSee all streamingTransportationExpandElectric CarsAutonomous CarsRide-sharingScootersSee all transportationFeaturesVerge VideoExpandTikTokYouTubeInstagramPodcastsExpandDecoderThe VergecastVersion HistoryNewslettersArchivesStoreVerge Product UpdatesSubscribeFacebookThreadsInstagramYoutubeRSSThe VergeThe Verge logo.AI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the gamesComments DrawerCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...GamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentAI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the gamesOf the many developers I spoke to at GDC, nearly every one disavowed using AI in their projects.by Jay PetersCloseJay PetersSenior ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Jay PetersMar 22, 2026, 12:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Photo by the GDC Festival of GamingGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentAI was everywhere at gaming’s big developer conference — except the gamesOf the many developers I spoke to at GDC, nearly every one disavowed using AI in their projects.by Jay PetersCloseJay PetersSenior ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Jay PetersMar 22, 2026, 12:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Jay PetersCloseJay PetersPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.AI was everywhere at the GDC Festival of Gaming this year. Vendors at the event pitched generative AI tools for things like making AI-driven NPCs and even entire games from a chat box. On the show floor, I spent 10 minutes playing a demo of a pixel-art fantasy world generated by Tencent’s AI tools. In a briefing with Razer, I watched an AI assistant for QA automatically log issues in a shooter game. And there were many talks about AI, including a standing-room only presentation by Google DeepMind researchers about playable AI-generated spaces.But there was one key place where AI was missing: the games themselves. Of the many developers I spoke to at the conference, nearly every one was against the idea of using AI in their projects. “I feel like the human mind is so beautiful,” The Melty Way developer Gabriel Paquette told me. “Why not use it?”Photo by the GDC Festival of GamingIt was a common refrain. Those I spoke to, most of whom were indie developers, disavowed AI, and many said they would never use the technology as it detracted from the human element of development. That’s perhaps not surprising, given that a recent GDC survey found that 52 percent of respondents think “generative AI is having a negative impact on the game industry,” which is up from 30 percent in 2025 and 18 percent in 2024. Some indie developers already go out of their way to show that their games are “AI free.” The largely negative reaction to Nvidia’s DLSS 5, which, in the publicly shown examples, added AI slop-like faces to recognizable game characters, almost certainly won’t make smaller developers more interested in the technology.The general pitch for generative AI in gaming is that it might benefit both developers and players. In the most optimistic view of the technology, developers could use AI to help with tasks like debugging, QA, and idea generation, while players could use AI to help tailor games for themselves. Google Cloud executive Jack Buser, who helped launch Google Stadia and worked on PlayStation Now and PlayStation Home at Sony, says that generative AI is “the largest transformation in the games industry I have ever witnessed in my nearly 30-year career.”“Absolutely not”But for many of those actually making games, the conversation is different. For instance, Adam Saltsman and Rebekah Saltsman, cofounders of the “collaborative” studio and publisher Finji, known for indie hits like Tunic and Chicory: A Colorful Tale, note that their works are defined in part by “a specific person or persons’ fingerprints.” In other words, a handmade, human quality, one that can include an element of surprise. ”You can show people what it is, but you are going to break all of their expectations when they go and play it,” Rebekah adds. That philosophy runs counter to the idea of utilizing generative AI in development. When I asked the Saltsmans if they would consider using generative AI for any of Finji’s games, it was a hard no. “Absolutely not,” Adam says.Many developers told me that, in their view, AI-made games don’t look or feel like human-made games, at least right now. Audiences “don’t connect” with generative AI, according to Abby Howard, from Slay the Princess developer Black Tabby Games, adding that “I think it’s generic, I think it makes it feel cheap.” Rebekah is more blunt, saying that generative AI “just looks like crap.” For Matthew Jackson, who is working on the comedy game My Arms Are Longer Now, there’s another practical issue: “AI is so not funny.”My Arms Are Longer Now. Image: Jackbox GamesThere are also legal problems that would complicate actually selling a game made with generative AI. Putting aside issues like the environmental impact of AI or concerns about the data AI is trained on, the Saltsmans tell The Verge they don’t think there is a legal framework to actually selling generative AI output. (This issue is also exacerbated by the fact that AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted.)Finji isn’t the only publisher that isn’t accepting games made with generative AI. Panic, the publisher of Untitled Goose Game and creator of the Playdate, does not “have any interest in generative AI-created products,” cofounder Cabel Sasser tells The Verge. BigMode, the publishing company started by Jason Gastrow, aka videogamedunkey, requires developers to check a box with their application that says “I confirm that my game is human-made and does not include any use of generative AI.” Even Hasbro, which is now developing its own video games, isn’t using AI in its development pipelines, CEO Chris Cocks recently said on Decoder.But perhaps what came up most often in my conversations at GDC is that using generative AI removes the craft from making video games. “The only way to get better at things is through the intense concentration of a career of applied craft,” Black Tabby Games’ Tony Howard-Arias says. Adam talked about how writing code can be “one of those things, like visual art, that pushes on your game design.” He points out that good programming is also good for players: “Things that are really hard to program are often really hard for a player to understand, too.” Alex Schleifer, cofounder of Ballgame developer Human Computer, says that the process of making games is just fun — and from that process, ”you’re also going to come to better ideas.”“Where do you get new talent in the future?”There are concerns that AI tools might take away jobs from humans, which would both lower the pool of available positions in an industry already riddled with layoffs and provide new developers fewer ways to get their foot in the door. But despite the promised cost and efficiency savings — and that’s assuming an AI tool can even compare to what a human can do — this too would have problems. If you replace humans with AI, “where do you get new talent in the future?” Tony says.RelatedHalf of developers think gen AI is bad for the gaming industryIndie game developers have a new sales pitch: being ‘AI free’Bespoke AI models are the next big thing in filmmakingRight now, the developers I spoke with believe crafting games by hand creates a more human connection. “We tell human stories,” Rebekah says. When you launch a game, there is a person that “you’ll never meet in your whole life that is playing a thing that you’ve spent thousands upon thousands of hours considering and working on.” Caring about their experience and that connection is “why we do this.”Some indie developers I spoke with are open to the potential that generative AI in games could be useful for development or widely adopted down the line. The film and TV industry, for example, is seeing the rise of companies that build bespoke AI models to help with production, which could be a possible future for AI tools for game development. Maybe, at some point, AI will be more accepted, Paquette says. But for now, he prefers to do “100 percent” handcrafted work. “That’s something dear to me.”Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay PetersCloseJay PetersSenior ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Jay PetersAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportMost PopularMost PopularThe improved battery-powered Starlink Mini is hereGemini task automation is slow, clunky, and super impressiveThe new MacBook Pro is still fast as hellThe gen AI Kool-Aid tastes like eugenicsHalide co-founder is suing former partner for bringing source code to AppleThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. 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The GDC Festival of Gaming in 2026 presented a striking tableau: a pervasive exploration of artificial intelligence throughout the developer conference, yet a simultaneous and overwhelmingly negative reaction from the gaming industry’s core participants. Jay Peters’ reporting from The Verge highlighted a significant resistance among indie developers and established studios toward utilizing generative AI in their projects, a sentiment largely predicated on a desire to preserve the distinctly human element within game development. The survey data revealed a considerable apprehension, with 52% of respondents believing generative AI was having a detrimental impact on the industry – a figure significantly higher than the 30% and 18% recorded in 2025 and 2024 respectively. Key figures, such as Gabriel Paquette of The Melty Way, championed a focus on the “beautiful” aspects of the human creative process, rejecting AI as a means of diminishing this. Finji’s founders, Adam and Rebekah Saltsman, epitomized this resistance, emphasizing the importance of a “specific person or persons’ fingerprints” in their work, a quality they believed AI could fundamentally distort. This ethos was echoed by publishers like Panic (makers of *Untitled Goose Game* and *Playdate*) and Hasbro, with executive leadership explicitly discouraging the use of generative AI, citing concerns about perceived aesthetic quality and, crucially, the lack of a legal framework for selling AI-generated game content.

The narrative underscored a profound distrust fueled by experiences like Nvidia’s DLSS 5, which, in demonstrable examples, introduced unnaturally smooth, almost artificial-looking faces into recognizable game characters, sparking widespread criticism of the technology’s impact on visual fidelity and player immersion. Developers expressed anxiety about a homogenization of game design, fearing that AI-generated content would lack the “generic” feel that undermines a player’s connection to the game. Tony Howard-Arias of Black Tabby Games articulated this concern succinctly, describing AI-generated visuals as “just looks like crap.” Matthew Jackson, developing *My Arms Are Longer Now*, raised a practical objection: “AI is so not funny,” revealing a deep-seated belief that AI-driven humor fundamentally misses the mark. Beyond aesthetic concerns, legal considerations presented an additional barrier, particularly regarding copyright protection for AI-generated artwork, a practical hurdle further complicated by unresolved questions around the environmental impact and data sourcing for these systems.

Despite the potential efficiencies offered by AI—promises of streamlined debugging, QA support, and even initial concept generation—the prevailing attitude was one of caution. Several developers expressed worries about potential job losses within the gaming industry, a particularly acute concern given existing layoffs, and furthermore questioned the long-term availability of talent— “where do you get new talent in the future?,” as Tony Howard-Arias wondered. However, some voices acknowledged potential future uses for AI within development pipelines, citing examples from other industries like film and television. The suggestion was that bespoke AI models, once established, could offer valuable support. Ultimately, many, including Paquette, maintained a commitment to painstakingly handcrafted work, valuing the concentrated, skill-based process of game development as a crucial element of creating a truly engaging and lasting player experience. The prevailing sentiment was that the core value of game development lay not just in the finished product, but in the human craft that brought it to life.