The gaming community’s discontent with generative AI tools appears to be gaining momentum. According to new data from the Game Developer Collective, developer use of generative AI tools is showing a decline after an initial surge of interest in the first half of 2025.
The gaming community’s discontent with generative AI tools appears to be gaining momentum. According to new data from the Game Developer Collective, developer use of generative AI tools is showing a decline after an initial surge of interest in the first half of 2025.
This year, only 29% of Game Developer Collective participants reported using generative AI tools, down from 36% last year during the same period, Game Developer reports .
This trend is a reversal from what Collective observed between 2024 and 2025. In the second half of 2024, only 24% of respondents said they were using generative AI. This means that AI adoption rates increased by 12% between 2024 and 2025, and have declined by 7% since then.
According to a summer study, nearly half (47%) of developers surveyed expressed concerns that generative AI would negatively impact game quality, and only 11% believed it would have a positive effect. These figures remained largely unchanged in 2026. However, there was a more significant shift in the assessment of AI’s impact on game development costs.
While in the first half of 2025, 27% of survey participants were optimistic about the ability of generative AI to reduce costs, at the beginning of 2026, only 21% shared this opinion. Meanwhile, the number of developers who believe that generative AI will only increase costs has increased by 8% compared to last year.
A study from GDC also showed that game developers’ attitudes towards AI are deteriorating . In 2026, 52% of more than 2,300 respondents said “that generative AI has a negative impact on the gaming industry.” Two years ago, only 18% believed this, and last year, 30%.
