A growing number of European industry representatives are announcing on LinkedIn that they will not be attending GDC due to the political situation in the US. While the organisers are taking these concerns seriously, they can ultimately only point to improved affordability and the GDC Vault.
Should one travel to the USA on a business trip given the current political circumstances? This is a question that many members of the international games industry, particularly those in Europe, are asking themselves on business and social media platforms such as LinkedIn. And more and more are publicly answering 'no' in view of upcoming industry events such as the DICE Summit and, above all, the GDC Festival. Although it is repeatedly pointed out that the events themselves or their organisers are not to blame for the unease caused by the expected border controls and the disclosure of social media activities, it is precisely events like GDC that will suffer in case of doubt.
The concerns of potential visitors are taken very seriously there, as Nina Brown confirms in response to questions from GamesMarkt. "We work with local officials and legal experts to monitor any US policy changes, and our guidance to our international community members is to begin visa applications early and consult with their embassy on any additional requirements," says the President of GDC Festival of Gaming.
Brown can also confirm that, two months before the event, participants from over 60 countries have already registered. She does not provide exact details on how high the number of registrations is compared to other years. However, she says that they are excited to bring so many members of the community together to experience the new area of GDC.
GDC is repositioning itself this year as a Festival of Gaming (we reported). Feedback from the international game developer community was also taken into account. Thanks to a revised ticket structure, GDC 2026 is 45% more affordable than last year's event, says Brown.
With regard to safety on site, the GDC president referred to the comprehensive measures taken by the GDC team. She also expressed understanding for individual decisions not to attend the conference. It is hoped that everyone who is unable to be in San Francisco will make use of the content available on GDC Vault.
Here is the full statement from Nina Brown, President GDC Festival of Gaming, in its entirety.
“We appreciate the concerns that some of our community have expressed in the lead-up to GDC Festival of Gaming. We work with local officials and legal experts to monitor any US policy changes, and our guidance to our international community members is to begin visa applications early and consult with their embassy on any additional requirements.
We’re two months away from the GDC Festival of Gaming, and we’re seeing global participation from 60+ countries so far. We’re incredibly excited to bring together as many members of our community as possible to experience the new era of GDC. We have transformed GDC to drive connection, discovery, and collaboration for the entire games industry, and we look forward to welcoming everyone who imagines, builds, ships, markets, scales, and sustains the world’s most impactful, successful games.
Of course, the safety of our community is always our top priority. Our safety and security initiatives in and around the Moscone Centre include:
On affordability, we have simplified our pass structure for GDC Festival of Gaming. These changes were informed and inspired by feedback from our community, and our simplified pass structure, starting at $649 for five days of unlimited content and connections, makes GDC 2026 45% more affordable than last year's event.
At any event there are always individual situations where people can no longer attend or change their minds, and of course we respect those individuals' decisions. For those that aren’t able to join us in San Francisco this year, we hope they’ll make use of our GDC Vault content, over 30% of which is freely available for those that aren’t already subscribed, plus the 1,900+ videos hosted for free on GDC’s official YouTube channel."
