GDC Festival of Gaming announces changes to 2027 event, including new Business Hall at Moscone West

GDC Festival of Gaming 2027 is reshaping its San Francisco footprint around a more segmented week. The biggest addition is a new Business Hall at Moscone West, replacing the old Speed Networking area and giving publisher meetings, investor talks, and partner conversations a dedicated home on the show floor.

For developers, the practical change is a more flexible pass structure. New options include a $99 Business Hall Only pass, a $149 Festival Hall Only pass, and a $99 1-Day Career pass. Indie and Start-Up attendees will also be split into separate $299 passes, while the $499 Festival Pass remains the main all-access option for sessions, Festival Hall, Business Hall, and GDC Nights.

GDC is also moving some premium content around. The Luminaries Speaker Series is no longer locked behind the Game Changer tier and will be available to all conference attendees, while the Digital Pass is being dropped as a bundled product in favor of a standalone GDC Vault subscription/add-on. That makes the offering clearer for people who mainly want on-demand session access.

The schedule is shifting too: Festival Hall now runs Tuesday through Thursday, and GDC Nights will run Monday through Wednesday, with the Developer’s Concert, GDC Awards, and IGF Awards each getting their own evening. GDC says the changes come from industry feedback and are meant to better match why people actually come to the event: learning, hiring, funding, dealmaking, and showing off new tech.