GDC's State of the Games Industry survey says one in ten respondents laid off in 20248 percent of devs creating for Switch 2.Image credit: Adobe Stock / Shopping King Louie News by Matt Wales News Reporter Published on Jan. 21, 2025 Game Developer Conference organisers have shared the results of this year's State of the Game Industry survey - intended to provide a snapshot of current trends and sentiments among developers - revealing, among other things, that one in ten respondents lost their jobs in 2024, following the devastating wave of layoffs seen across the industry.This year's State of Games Industry report surveyed over 3000 developers across a range of topics, but layoffs were once again front of mind as the widespread industry job cuts of 2023 continued into 2024 - with figures suggesting 13000 employees lost their jobs last year. According to GDC's survey, not only did one in ten developers report having been laid off directly, 41 percent of respondents said they'd felt the impact of layoffs in some way. The area reportedly most affected by layoffs was game narrative at 19 percent.Respondents cited restructuring, declining revenue, and marketing shifts as the main reason for job cuts, with many blaming "specific issues like Covid-era over-expansion, rising production costs, declining player interest, unrealistic expectations for the 'next big hit', poor leadership and mismanagement" as the reason why layoffs have continued to impact the games industry.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Newscast: Switch 2 and Mario Kart 9 revealed - but questions remain.Watch on YouTubeElsewhere, unionisation remains a talking point, with one-fifth of respondents saying they'd discussed unionising over the past 12 months. 29 percent said their companies were supportive of the discussions, while 19 percent were mixed and 12 percent opposed unionisation.GDC also questioned respondents on average working hours, with 57 percent saying they worked 40 hours or less a week. 13 percent of those survey worked more than 51 hours per week - up from 8 percent last year - with two-third attributing their hours to self-pressure.As for the platforms developers are currently focusing their attention on, PC once again leads the charge by a significant margin, with 80 percent of those surveyed saying they were currently developing PC games - up from 66 percent last year. While GDC wasn't able to confidently state a reason for this increase, it speculated a link to the popularity of Steam Deck - with 44 percent expressing an interest in Valve's platform.Over on console, 38 percent of developers reported they're currently making games for PS5, compared to 34 percent for Xbox Series X/S, while 20 percent are developing for Switch. As for Nintendo's recently unveiled Switch 2, eight percent of developers said they're developing for the platform - the same figure reported in last year's GDC survey.Respondents also shared their thoughts on live service gaming - another area generating headlines right now, as studios continue to pull the plug on floundering or still-in-development titles. 42 percent of those surveyed said they weren't interested in working on live service games, but those who saw value in them did so for various reasons: "not only on the financial side, but also in player experience and community building".Those with less enthusiasm blamed "declining player interest, creative stagnation, predatory practices and micro-transactions, and the risk of developer burnout", as well as concerns around market saturation and the difficulty of building a sustainable player base.And as for AI, 30 percent of respondents said they believed AI is having a negative impact on the industry - a 12 percent increase from last year - with many sharing concerns around "intellectual property theft, energy consumption, a decrease in quality from AI-generated content, potential biases within AI programs and regulation issues". Despite these reservations, 52 percent said their companies have implemented generative AI - with respondents in business and finance most likely to use AI tools (51 percent), followed by production and team leadership (41 percent), and community, marketing, and PR (39 percent).GDC's full State of the Game Industry report can be downloaded from its website (registration is required) and is well worth a read, offering a fascinating snapshot of current developer sentiment and trends following an extremely challenging year for the industry.