r/technology • u/renome • 5h ago
Politics Game devs skipping GDC 2026 over ICE concerns, US safety fears
https://gamerant.com/gdc-2026-ice-concerns-us-safety-fears-dev-comments/2.8k
u/MotherFunker1734 5h ago
Coming up next: The FIFA world cup has been a failure because people didn't want to visit the NAZI USA.
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u/Christopher3712 5h ago
I would love to see that happen.
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u/Sober_Alcoholic_ 5h ago edited 4h ago
Me too. Those of us that dislike this administration are in the MAJORITY. We don’t want or like this. We need help.
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u/PutridSauce 4h ago
*sees millions of americans protesting and speaking against what's going on*
"They're wrong and BAD people!1" - some dumb fuck
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u/MommyLovesPot8toes 2h ago
More like "why aren't Americans doing anything!? They're so selfish and lazy! In my country, we would have been in the streets already!"
(Just completely ignores all coverage of millions of people protesting and hundreds of thousands shutting down the cities where ICE is operating).
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u/b1rdiemcb1rdface 3h ago
Sepp already said something in this regard today
“For fans, just one piece of advice: avoid the United States! You’ll get a better view on television anyway. Upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don’t behave properly with the authorities, they will be immediately sent home. If they’re lucky …”
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u/TeaAndLifting 3h ago
Not going to happen. Football fans aren’t principled enough to put politics over a chance to watch their national team play.
Didn’t boycott Qatar or Russia, despite all the corruption issues around that. No chance it’ll happen for America either.
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u/Miltrivd 3h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah, absolutely no way. There's no moral fiber in football, the sport itself is intrinsically plagued with unsportsmanlike behavior.
For Qatar, I remember two people speaking against it and both were retired players.
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u/TyrKiyote 4h ago
Write to fifa expressing this. If you do, i will too.
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u/214ObstructedReverie 1h ago
The same FIFA that just gave Trump a "peace prize" to make him happy?
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u/brandontaylor1 5h ago
Winners advance to the next round, losers are deported to an El Salvadoran death camp.
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u/ZackRaynor 5h ago
“Not sure why, since they got the FIFA Peace Prize.” - Some idiot, probably.
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u/GetsBetterAfterAFew 5h ago
But 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin popped off!
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u/TheProphetRob 3h ago
There was no internet to show videos of people being executed in the streets in 1936
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u/CocodaMonkey 3h ago
To be quite frank that was because Germany was actually trying to make it work. They wanted to show the world their system was working so they cut back on most the horrible things they did (mostly just tried to hide it better for a few weeks) and openly allowed people in even from races and cultures they were oppressing.
It's basically the same thing Qatar did for the world cup. They relaxed a lot of their rules to make it more welcoming to others. They didn't actually change anything country wide, they just tried to be a bit nicer during the event so people could come in, see how amazing they are and then leave.
The US is going the opposite route. It's doubling down on all the shit its doing. Outright saying it will try to deport people who dare go to the games and outright banning many countries from even being able to come watch the games at all.
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u/MasterPong 4h ago
I would love for the Canadian and Mexican hosted games to have a better international attendance than the US ones
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u/AKAFallow 3h ago
They probably will, and also likely the reason the US bidded to have the majority of games held there
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u/zzyzx2 4h ago
There's a LOT of talk from everyone around FIFA but not FIFA themselves. They are coming regardless if a team shows up or not FIFA will happen....Tickets are being sold but it's like well known the majority were set to be resold by scalpers. Teams/Fans are expecting a boycott. And to top it all off, a whole lot of fucking money has already been spent. So yeah, it's looking like a real shit storm for Fox and anyone around The World Cup....
That all said, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if nothing changes and The World Cup goes off without any issues. There's way too much money invested already. Much the same as the 1936 Olympics, we will see a few standing up and making a point to say the US didn't deserve the sport being hosted there and that's worth more, historically then any boycott. There was a "boycott" for the 36 games, even a whole different games set that year in Spain (didn't happen), but we don't talk about that...we sure as fuck know the image of Jesse Owens standing next to Nazi's geting his gold medal. Sometimes the best protest is run with the enemy and make your voice heard when the stage is yours.
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u/MadameConnard 4h ago
They didn't cared for AC'd Stadiums in the middle of the desert built on slavery you think they'd care about Nazis ? 🤣
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u/Codzy 4h ago
I wish this would happen but football fans are typically pretty dense and pretty right wing or centrist at the very least. I don’t think your average World Cup enjoyer gives a shit.
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u/Challengeaccepted3 5h ago
Usually countries have two ways to measure power, soft power and hard power.
Hard power is your military and (some would argue) your economic leverage. The US has a massive amount of hard power. Our military is extremely advanced and sophisticated, and we can crash any economy on earth aside from like, North Korea.
Soft power is your ability to host events and your cultural power. When GDC 2026 decides not to operate in the US, it’s a sign that your soft power is rapidly deteriorating. Sure it’s a video game event now, but what about a huge sporting event like the Olympics? What about a huge industry conference?
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u/Miraclefish 5h ago
When The Game Awards brings in more global viewers than the Superbowl and the biggest gaming release in all human history is happening this year (unless it gets delayed again...) you're absolutely right to describe gaming as a cultural and economical powerhouse on par with movies and music and football.
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u/MegaOoga 3h ago
Fun fact: the video game industry is bigger than the music and movie industries combined.
Though it does include mobile games and all their micro transactions, it still blows my mind.
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u/PM_Best_Porn_Pls 2h ago
Pretty sure mobile game market alone beats them combined. People often underestimate how massive it is.
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u/Marbas_Aurelius 2h ago
I'm pretty sure just anime Gacha games beats them all combined. MiHoYo has been funding the development of nuclear fusion tech since 2022 they have that much spare money. Cygames pulls in half a billion annually from one of their smaller profiting games. FGO pulls in over a billion each year by itself and the game is practically a slide show.
Motherfuckers are scary good at making money.
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u/crokinhole 4h ago
What's the biggest game release in history? I just bought a 5080.
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u/Marcyff2 4h ago
Well GTA v was the biggest release ever. GTA v is still one of the most profitable games of the year (2025 after 13 years). GTA vi trailer broke viewership records. I let you guess what that game would be
Also pc release is scheduled for 1 year after
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u/monkeymad2 3h ago
I don’t think they’ve ever announced anything about the PC release timing, people just assume it’ll be 1 year since it’s what they’ve always done before and it’s the most scumbag move since it’s only really to try to get people to double-dip.
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u/derpferd 5h ago
Well, the US is hosting an enormous sporting event later this year so we'll see how it goes
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u/DDOSBreakfast 4h ago
Mass human rights violations are a requirement to host FIFA given their track record this century.
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u/LaunchTransient 4h ago
Thing is that Qatar has a strictly managed media environment and astroturfing campaigns that surpressed the worst stuff coming out.
The US currently has wall to wall coverage of US-flavoured gestapo arresting people for standing on the street, the US president has been menacing and indeed invading other countries, and the demands for entry into the US have a distinctly fascist look to them.
So... It's not like this is business as usual.
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u/Suibeam 3h ago
People talking about Qatar do not realise a huge difference.
People who go there, are rather middle class to wealthy people and know they have tourist privilege. Even when Qatar has slavery issues, and sexual laws, you are fairly certain Tourists are exempt. And your country can get you out from a small Qatar.
In case of the USA, no country can get their citizens out when arrested by Washingtons Regime. Furthermore, Washingtons Regime and ICE have shown they even shoot their most privileged White People. There is no way anyone feels safe, and anyone would feel Tourist privilege. It is also pretty much known that tourists from Europe have been harassed from border control at the airports.
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u/howtojump 3h ago
FWIW we have slaves here in the US, too, we just call them "felons".
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u/GenuisInDisguise 4h ago
Billionaires have no use for culture, they operate like they live on another planet.
I suggest reading on Network States, they want to abolish not only the culture but the borders and the notion of countries. Everything will be a state, and every settlement will have its feudal overlord aptly name CEO. Like good ole mining worker town.
They are playing the long game, and we are still sleeping.
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u/Orisi 4h ago
I think the biggest shot against your soft power is an American Pope.
It was pretty much an unspoken rule in the Vatican for the past century that as long as the US maintained its significant presence on the world stage in both soft and hard power, the papacy would not go to an American to ensure other voices have an opportunity to be heard.
If the Vatican thinks its now acceptable to have an American Pope, that means they don't think this will be changing next month, or next year. They're confident you've got a few decades of a reduction in standing before they have to consider American soft power something they need to take into account.
There's plenty of other indicators of American loss of soft power in the past few years, but the Catholic Church didnt survive a thousand years by taking risky bets. They see American influence going down, and a potential for religious movement within the US to increase, with a potential of their own expansion as a result. Not many places they can position themselves as the more liberal religious position.
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u/Challengeaccepted3 4h ago
I would partially agree, though why and how popes are selected are very complicated. Some cardinals certainly see the US as being less dominant, but there’s other factors like Conservatism vs liberalism in the church, Pope Francis’ legacy and more
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u/Soggy-Software 5h ago
Absolutely the right thing to do. Once a country starts executing its citizens it’s time to exclude them from civilised cultures
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u/huggalump 5h ago edited 3h ago
In addition, once a country starts detaining people due entirely to how they look and talk, it's time to exclude them from civilized cultures
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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 4h ago
I applaud doing this for the US, but as China has shown, authoritarian crackdowns and suppression are tolerated if you provide goods and services that the rest of the world can’t.
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u/DrRonSimmons 4h ago
The U.S has been executing its citizens from its inception. The only difference is now they're doing it to the white ones too.
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u/Soggy-Software 4h ago
Well shit you ain’t wrong. The Country is fucked and has been a long time.
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u/CatsAndCapybaras 3h ago
The country has always been fucked. It was founded by slave owners rebelling against a colonial empire over tax dispute and policy.
However, it had been trending upward. We abolished slavery via an extremely violent and destructive civil war. We had a labor movement that brought worker protections and outlawed child labor. We expanded voting to people other than white men. We had the civil rights act that made many types of discrimination illegal.
We have suffered with serious issues with class and race since the founding, but we were trending in the right direction. For some of us, the trend wasn't fast enough. Unfortunately, 77M of our countrymen thought progress was a bad thing.
40 years of bad neoliberal economic policies turned the public against our institutions and made the fields fertile for fascism.
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u/boblond 5h ago
Please move it to Vancouver or Montreal next year, no one wants to visit the US right now.
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u/APRengar 3h ago
A small seattle con I got to is looking to move to vancouver and man I hope it works out. It's a con that is overwhelming American and Canadians, and I'm not sure it'll survive if it loses the Canadian half.
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u/Separate-Park8184 5h ago edited 1h ago
Funny how ice was supposed to protect everyone but turned out to be the terrorists
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u/celtic1888 5h ago
I just wish someone would have said this was going to happen before I voted……………
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u/AgathysAllAlong 4h ago
They're really upset this is happening. They don't support it, they'll have you know.
Oh, they'll still vote for him and the party again. They won't actually do anything about it. But oh, you can't possibly blame his supporters for giving him power.
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u/quadraticcheese 4h ago
Ice was literally never intended to protect. It was invented in 2003 to terrorize Muslims
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u/HugsandHate 4h ago
I'm not sure they were ever supposed to protect anyone, bud.
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u/Laughing_Zero 5h ago
Countries should start appealing to all these types of groups/conferences and offering to host as a superior alternative to the US.
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u/GildedDreams25 5h ago
it’s absurd to me that the US didn’t realize that turning into nazi germany is going to make less people want to be here. it’s so simple i figured even the idiots currently in charge would figure that out
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u/CrimsonHeretic 5h ago
The idiots in charge want exactly that. They're racist fascist pigs who want less people coming to the US unless they're white.
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u/GildedDreams25 5h ago
yeah but even white people arent going to want to visit the US
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u/LowestKey 4h ago
That's a trade off they're willing to make if it means they can brutalize non-whites and people who sympathize with non-whites.
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u/Sylvers 5h ago
Worse than that. A lot of racist people have a self righteous way of viewing the world. Many of them assume that other members of their ethnicity must share their exact views.
I am sure they believe that once they ethnically cleanse the US of melanin content, all the "best white people" will flock to the US from across the globe.
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u/Dull_Bid6002 3h ago
Wealthy and white and speak English.
They don't want the poor non-English speaking white people either.
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u/huntrcl 5h ago
I think that’s their whole thing, they don’t want outsiders here unless they’re white.
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u/ZebraSandwich4Lyf 4h ago
They're doing a great job of deterring white people as well but they probably didn't think that far ahead. I'm white European and I'm never stepping into hellhole USA again whilst the Nazi pigs are in charge, it just isn't worth the risk.
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u/ShinyTinfoilFedora 5h ago
I thought it was obvious that was the goal the whole time. They haven't been hiding it
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u/Ultimafatum 5h ago
Move it to Canada. Montreal and Vancouver are huge hubs for the gaming industry, and cheaper than San Francisco anyway.
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u/MurongYuan 5h ago
The US is gonna stop being the host of a lot of international events very soon. You guys can come to Canada.
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u/celtic1888 4h ago
If I was a Canada real estate developer I would look into building big convention centers and stadiums
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u/Ehloanna 5h ago
I was at GDC last year and the concerns were the same. A number of people decided it wasn't safe to come.
Unfortunately I would say GDC feels like it has been on a decline overall. It's expensive and SF is even more expensive. Young game devs can't really afford to go unless their company sends them. Yeah there's the option to volunteer, but often that role is something students have the time to do, not people going on behalf of their small company.
I probably won't get to go again because I changed industries, but I'm curious to see if it'll be able to survive this for the next few years.
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u/No_Construction2407 4h ago
There was a story of a tourist in Canada who didn’t know the area, accidentally ended up at the Canada/US border and was kidnapped and held at one of ICE’s black sites for 2.5 months.
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u/hackingdreams 4h ago
Honestly this should go for any conference in the United States.
DEFCON should be relocated to Europe this year - Germany's got some event spaces that could handle it.
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u/-The_Blazer- 4h ago
Where I work we're currently having talks about whether attending corporate events in the USA is worth the risk of a huge fuckup involving our brand. I don't think MAGA types realize how fucked their country's reputation has become.
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u/entered_bubble_50 3h ago
I have a friend from work who needs to go to the US to work with NASA in Mississippi this year. She's a trans woman. So she can't go, and the whole project is at risk now. It's insane.
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u/DreamingDjinn 3h ago
It would probably be safer to hire some cornball white guy state-side and have him be your company's representative rather than send people overseas. Just look at what happened at the Georgia Hyundai plant
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u/OmegaDez 2h ago
Nope, they keep thinking the US has never been this respected around the world since their Dear Leader stopped a thousand wars. (That no one but him knew about)
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u/Atlanta_Mane 5h ago
NOW DO FIFA
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u/puesyomero 3h ago
Fifa is greasier than trump. Not deadlier but definitely greasier
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u/eating_your_syrup 4h ago
People would travel to Putin's Russia to see Olympic games etc. Enough will most likely travel to USA too to fill the stadiums so that it doesn't look that bad.
Unfortunately.
Personally I'm equally uninterested in travelling to either until leadership changes.
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u/Gruejay2 3h ago
I think the difference is that the US is very unpredictable at the moment, as things have been very obviously escalating over the last year, and we've all heard horror stories of travellers being detained for months. As horrible as Russia is, it was still a safe bet that they weren't going to going after world cup tourists, and it's generally easy to avoid the things that are likely to get you in trouble. I certainly can't say the same about the US right now.
It's one thing boycotting the world cup out of principle against the regime, but I bet a lot of people avoid it simply due to the personal risk factor (however real it may or may not be).
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u/TheValorous 4h ago
Considering ICE has been confirmed to not only be, abducting legal citizens, abducting immigrants in good standing, physically and psychologically abuse anyone who tries to get in the way or question their "athoritah", murdering people, and a ton of other stuff I can't recall at the moment, yeah I'm not surprised.
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u/Tquilha 4h ago
So, "GDC responds...": "...the festival has expanded safety training for all of its staff, offers security escorts upon request, and has a 24/7 safety line..."
Any kind of place where a game developer's conference needs this kind of stuff is a place I will not go to, no matter what.
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u/DreamingDjinn 3h ago
Lol yeah the rent-a-cops are definitely gonna help against ICE when the actual police won't do a damn thing. Suuuuuuure GDC lmao
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u/penguished 4h ago
Conservatives have utterly trashed this country. The US has never had this reputation of being a broken nation where everybody's safety is at risk (including citizens), and you need to keep your cellphone recording all the time.
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u/AlfieHicks 2h ago
Conservatives have trashed the entire world. Every country that isn't already under control by fascists is currently having its population brainwashed by treasonous right-wing ""parties"" who want to be that country's equivalent of Trump: to dissolve the entire nation solely in the interest of short-term personal gain.
Conservatism is inherently misanthropic and we cannot afford to tolerate it any longer.
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u/DuchessOfKvetch 4h ago
And they think this is “just the beginning “ of making it into what they want.
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u/kenshiki 4h ago
Considering that they don't care about verifying actual citizen's passport or ID, I'd expect them to detain multiple tourists and some would likely die from it then claim they are a terrorist and not a tourist before possibly making a justification to invade another country or tariff.
You only need one global event where they do this and I'm pretty sure US is fucked beyond saving.
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u/PlebiconValley 4h ago
anyone whos gone to GDC knows its been getting smaller ever since it kicked off post-COVID. the fact that the whole political situation makes it look extra iffy, probably means the event will be even tinier this year.
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u/GenitalCommericals 3h ago
I sincerely hope FIFA athletes make a statement and don’t come to the World Cup this year. I know it sucks for them to skip it but it would be such a telling fuck you to America and prove that Trump is fuckn loser nobody wants to be around.
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u/WingleDingleFingle 4h ago
Who tf would be going to the USA right unless you were going to visit family? Even for that I wouldn't be so sure. Leaving and returning that country right now seems like a total ball ache, to put it mildly.
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u/superkow 3h ago
I know it sucks for the people who voted against this regime and continue to oppose it, but this is exactly what the US deserves now. You don't get to be an economic and cultural superpower while simultaneously alienating everyone except for a very small minority of people
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u/GiganticCrow 3h ago
I'm one of them. Will be doing gamescom this year.
GDC is already super expensive once you take flights and hotels into account. If their social media check comes in, it'll all be for nothing.
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u/QuantumQuantonium 3h ago
Also Informa raised ticket prices to $400/600 for students/indie, and $1000 for everyone else, and in the middle of SF.
BoycottGDC. Whether its to avoid ICE or refuse Informa from robbing from game devs. A sponsor filled expo with sponsored talks and sponsorships all around is not worth their $1000 pricetag.
BoycottGDC. I'd like to go to Gamescon in Europe later this year- it'll cost as much for the entire trip, as the base price to GDC.
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u/daksnotjuts 4h ago
gonna start talking abt the us the same way i talk about north korea. a failed state.
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u/EverGreenPastures 3h ago
If I saw what was happening in America on the news I would cancel my trips and encourage anyone I cared about to consider traveling somewhere else. Unfortunately I live in America, and these are issues I and my family will have to deal with.
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u/GreatBlackWhale 3h ago
Smart move, this place isn’t even safe for its own people. It’ll be hell for everyone else
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u/kinkyaboutjewelry 3h ago
So sad that this would happen to the country whose president has won the most FIFA Peace Prizes.
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u/Shamgar65 3h ago
We cancelled our summer trip to the states because of 51st state talk and tarrifs. I will keep my money in Canada. Stay away from the US. They are becoming a pariah to the rest of the world. Is that what you want Trump and cohort? To be isolated and alone in an interconnected world?
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u/artisticMink 2h ago
We had the discussion in the company: No trips to the U.S. until strictly necessary to fulfill existing maintenance contracts.
There's simply no security on what would happen. In addition no one of our engineers wants to give their phone away at the airport and similar shenanigans.
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u/PhazePyre 2h ago
Canada should really have a massive industry conference up here. The amount of devs we have, minus the Gestapo, is significant. Vancouver, Montreal, or Toronto would be good spots.
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u/pmodizzle 3h ago
Would cup should do the same except FIFA has a hard-on for authoritarian regimes.
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u/eeyore134 3h ago
Good. Start hitting us where it hurts. Once these people stop making money they'll stop supporting the GOP and the GOP will stop supporting Trump. They won't stop supporting this fascist garbage, but they'll probably put on the brakes and back things off a bit. They wanted to slow boil the frog and Trump just came in and threw it in the fryer. They're along for the ride after seeing him get away with it for so long.
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u/Frenzystor 3h ago
No tourism money from me while orange kiddie diddler or his party are the government.
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u/Full-Ear87 3h ago
I am not going to GDC and many of my colleagues are also skipping GDC this year (and perhaps many more years)
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u/twitterfluechtling 43m ago
Concerns, not fears. Fear is an emotion, concern is based in logic and facts.
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u/rock25011 5h ago
I would not come to the US.