Nearly one-third of non-US game developers have cancelled plans to travel to the country because of immigration and gender identity policies

The situation in the US right now is not great, particularly for non-citizens. A promised crackdown on so-called "illegal immigrants" by US president Donald Trump has become a violent free-for-all resulting in multiple killings that the government and security forces have insisted were justified, despite sometimes ample evidence to the contrary.

Some countries over the past year have issued travel advisories or cautions for people headed to the US: Canada, for instance, issued a warning in 2025 that anyone with a gender-neutral passport could face difficulty entering the country because of an executive order signed by Trump directing the government to recognize only two "sexes," male and female.

The US is also home to a large number of developer conferences and events, and that leaves developers with a tough choice: Put themselves at risk of detention or worse, or miss out on potentially vital opportunities for networking and promotion, which can be particularly important for smaller indie devs. Despite the high cost missing these events can incur, GDC's 2026 State of the Game Industry survey indicates that nearly one-third of industry employees who don't live in the US have cancelled plans to travel there.

31% of the respondents to the survey, which encompassed more than 2,300 game industry workers, said they have cancelled plans to travel outright, while 33% are reconsidering future plans to do so. That number jumps to 47% among LGBTQ+ workers, reflecting the US government's walkback of human rights for the community, and in particular its attacks on trans rights.

Conversations about potential GDC safety concerns for non-Americans have been occurring on social media for some time now.

re the impending gdc 2026 and discussions about safety of entering the US, I am thinking about this graph the CBC posted today about changes in travel between the vancouver and seattle areas www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The survey doesn't get better on the management and money side. 60% of "non-US industry leaders and investors" said current immigration policies in the US have impacted either their ability or their desire to do business with American companies.

Among US-based professionals at companies with at least 20 employees, 18% said their ability to recruit or retain talent has been impacted by the country's immigration and gender policies, while 42% said there was no impact and 40% said they were unsure; among companies with at least 100 employees, 21% said they've been impacted by current US policies, 38% reported no impact, and 41% were unsure.

Interestingly, the survey dropped the same day GDC Executive Director Mark DeLoura told GamesIndustry that he's not yet seen an impact on ticket sales for GDC despite such concerns, and encouraged international travellers to attend.

"One of the great strengths of the show is that it's an international show," DeLoura said. "I think it's like 30% of people typically are international attendees. So we definitely want to see them come because it benefits all of us to have this global conversation."