Game Developers Conference
| Game Developers Conference | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | Conference, Expo |
| Format | In-person |
| Presenter | Informa |
| Cost | Festival Pass from $649 (2026) |
| Location | Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, U.S. |
| Dates | Annual, held each spring |
| Website | https://gdconf.com/ |
The Game Developers Conference (GDC), rebranded the GDC Festival of Gaming from 2026, is an annual professional event for video game developers held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. The organizer Informa describes it as the world's largest annual gathering of game industry professionals devoted to the art and science of making games.[1] The week-long program covers programming, design, production, audio, business, and visual arts, and includes an expo floor, the Independent Games Festival, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.
GDC began in April 1988 as the Computer Game Developers Conference, founded by game designer Chris Crawford, and was renamed the Game Developers Conference in 1999.[2] Its relevance to virtual reality and augmented reality grew sharply in the mid-2010s: Valve revealed the HTC Vive headset at GDC 2015, and from 2016 the conference hosted a dedicated VR and AR development track, the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC), which later spun off into a standalone immersive-technology event.[3][4]
History
The conference was first held in April 1988 as the Computer Game Developers Conference (CGDC). It began in the San Jose living room of game designer Chris Crawford and drew roughly 27 attendees.[2] The event was renamed the Game Developers Conference in 1999, the same year it launched the Independent Games Festival.[2][1]
GDC outgrew a series of early venues and was held at the San Jose Convention Center for much of the late 1990s and early 2000s before moving to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where it has been held annually since 2007.[2] Attendance grew from around 4,000 in 1996 to roughly 18,000 by 2008 and about 27,000 in 2019.[2] The 2020 edition was postponed and converted to a digital event amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 edition was held online only; in-person attendance returned in subsequent years, with the organizer reporting close to 30,000 attendees in 2025.[2][5]
Ownership of the event has changed with its organizers. It was run for years by UBM Technology, which merged with Informa PLC in June 2018; the conference is now operated by Informa.[2][6]
Format and program
GDC runs for five days and combines lecture-style sessions, tutorials, summits, roundtables, bootcamps, and an exhibition floor. The 2025 program listed more than 1,000 speakers, 725 sessions and related activities, and 400 exhibitors, drawing attendees from over 100 countries.[1] Content is organized by discipline, including audio, design, programming, production, business and marketing, and visual arts.[1]
Two awards programs run during the week. The Independent Games Festival (IGF), launched in 1999, recognizes independent games and awards cash prizes; its 27th edition was held in 2025. The Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), a peer-voted ceremony first held in 2001, reached its 25th edition in 2025. In 2025 the two ceremonies were held back to back on March 19.[1]
Virtual and augmented reality at GDC
GDC has been a recurring venue for virtual reality and augmented reality announcements and developer education. At GDC 2015 (March 2 to 5), Valve and HTC revealed the HTC Vive, a room-scale headset using Valve's Lighthouse tracking system, alongside Valve's announcement of the Source 2 engine and the Steam Link device.[4][7]
Beginning in 2016, the organizer added a dedicated VR and AR development track called the Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC). The inaugural VRDC ran on March 14 and 15, 2016 during the first two days of GDC, with programming aimed at developers working on VR and AR games, films, and other interactive experiences.[3] At GDC 2017 the conference scheduled more than 50 VR-focused sessions across the main conference, summits, tutorials, and bootcamps, with VRDC alone hosting more than 30 sessions from studios such as Oculus, HBO, Lucasfilm's ILMxLAB, and Owlchemy Labs.[8]
UBM also ran VRDC as a separate fall conference, first held on November 2 and 3, 2016 at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco, to cover immersive technology beyond games, including healthcare, journalism, manufacturing, retail, and training. The VRDC game and entertainment tracks continued to be hosted within the broader GDC event.[9] In 2018 the standalone fall event was rebranded XRDC to span virtual, augmented, and mixed reality; XRDC 2018 was held October 29 to 30 at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.[6]
GDC Festival of Gaming
On October 23, 2025, Informa announced that the event would be rebranded the GDC Festival of Gaming, starting with the 2026 edition.[10] The reimagined event kept the Moscone Center as its home and restructured ticketing, replacing tiered passes with a base Festival Pass priced at $649, about 45 percent below the previous all-access pass, plus discounted rates for independent developers, startups, and academics.[10]
The first GDC Festival of Gaming ran March 9 to 13, 2026 and reported roughly 20,000 attendees from more than 85 countries, with a unified content program spanning all five days and a renamed exhibition area, Festival Hall.[11] The event's official site lists the next edition for March 1 to 5, 2027 at the Moscone Center.[12]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Template:Cite news
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Game Developers Conference". 2026-05-01. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Developers_Conference.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Template:Cite news
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Template:Cite news
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ "GDC Festival of Gaming". 2026-06-01. https://gdconf.com/.