Zarf Updates

Back in March I made a lot of hay about the decline of GDC. I didn't confidently predict that GDC'27 would be cancelled, but cancellation wouldn't have surprised me.

Well, GDC'27 isn't cancelled. Which we knew. They would have had to announce a cancellation at or immediately after GDC '26. Turning a ship of that size takes a year of lead time, minimum.

Instead, as Cmdr. Takashima almost once said, GDC '27 is open for business. There's a shiny "What's New" page. To quote a couple of lines:

• Introducing a new Business Hall at Moscone West, built specifically for meetings, networking, partnerships, pitches, and getting business done.
• Opening the Festival Hall Tuesday through Thursday (previously Wednesday through Friday).
• Making several pass and pricing changes designed to provide more accessible ways into GDC.

Oh, and I was right about Ball-Park Monday being a flop. That's off the list.

The important part is the new price list. $500 standard; $300 for student/indie; $150 for the expo hall alone; $100 for the "business hall" alone.

In some sense, this completely contradicts GDC's new mission statement:

The GDC Festival of Gaming is where the entire B2B games industry comes together.

That's from an og:description metadata tag on their front page, which is surely the most official possible source. It used to say "the game industry's premier professional event", but this "B2B" language came in last year. Similarly, their 2025 rebrand announcement talked about "the world's premier B2B gaming industry event".

But look, $150 for the expo hall is not a B2B pitch. It's a "get some foot traffic" pitch. It's aimed at curious passers-by and the Yerba Buena Park crowd, who might be willing to pay a small sum to go inside and check out the fun stuff. (Meaning the IGF and alt.ctrl.gdc.) (And hopefully Twine....)

In some sense this is an admission that GDC is not a premier event for the entire game industry. It's a bunch of unrelated ungulates in a trenchcoat.

What about the business hall? ("Designed around how business gets done at GDC.") I read that as an attempt to bring back all the offsite meetings. Last year, companies were renting GDC-adjacent spaces (and, indeed, entire GDC-adjacent hotels) to avoid the GDC booth tax. GDC will surely still charge three arms and a leg for a big fancy booth. But if you're just there to schmooze, they're willing to pare that revenue stream back to zero (almost zero; zero by corporate standards) in order to fill Moscone up again.

This fits well with the idea that GDC has a multi-year Moscone contract; they have to keep running the show. (Not a confirmed fact, but widely understood.) If so, the next couple of GDCs are effectively loss leaders for a more dominant future event.

So total attendance is the metric to keep an eye on. 30k in 2025; 20k in 2026. If it rebounds in 2027, GDC will keep going more or less as it has been. If it keeps dropping...

Don't look at me; I don't know.

As for me, I feel less connected to GDC than ever. Yes, I had a lovely time last year. But I no longer have any ambitions -- or even wild hopes -- connected to the game industry. Showing off the Visible Zorker to a large audience was the last of that, and it's done.

As far as I know, IFTF will be back on the show floor in 2027. (Not a confirmed fact but I'm pretty sure.) GDC is still willing to bring in the indie and nonprofit groups for free. That's all good. I haven't decided whether I will be there working the booth. I'd really like to hit all of Worldcon, Mysterium, and NarraScope in 2027. That may consume my travel budget for the year.