Gamescom dev survey puts AI and smaller teams at centre of industry change

• 37% see smaller development teams as the biggest opportunity for developers.
• Leadership ranks as the most sought-after future skill, at 27%.
• 32% say more transparent platform algorithms would most improve game discoverability.
• 36% believe AI will change development roles rather than reduce team sizes.

AI-assisted development is expected to have the biggest impact on the games industry over the next three years, according to a new survey.

The Gamescom 2026 dev Speaker Survey showed that AI-assisted development was selected by 47% of respondents as the industry development likely to have the greatest impact, ahead of hardware and RAM prices at 28%. 

Moreover, 83% expect AI to affect team structure or productivity in some way. While 34% see the greatest value of AI in code and production, 30% would prefer as little AI involvement in game development as possible. 

Meanwhile, 36% believe AI will change roles rather than reduce team sizes, while 33% expect smaller teams.

Smaller teams and economic uncertainties

Smaller development teams were identified as the biggest opportunity over the next three years by 37% of respondents, ahead of new publishing models and community building at 15% each.

Digital and physical premium games were the most commonly selected business model at 29%, followed by live service at 24% and free-to-play with in-game items at 21%. 

Economic uncertainty was the industry's biggest current challenge, selected by 54% of respondents, followed by market saturation at 38%, discoverability at 35% and increasing development costs at 30%.

Leadership also ranked as the most sought-after future skill, with 27% of respondents selecting it, ahead of technical programming at 19%.

When asked about discoverability, 32% said more transparent platform algorithms would make the biggest difference, followed by better storefront recommendations at 22%.

The survey was completed by 100 speakers from this year’s gamescom dev conference. You can access the full report here.