The Game Developers Conference (GDC) Festival of Gaming has disclosed a suite of modifications for its 2027 edition, highlighted by the introduction of a purpose‑built Business Hall at Moscone West. Mark DeLoura, GDC’s vice president of content strategy, explained to GamesIndustry.biz that the Business Hall is designed specifically for meetings and relationship‑building, complementing the existing Festival Hall where attendees can explore tools, test demos, watch showcases, and mingle with the broader GDC community. According to DeLoura, the Business Hall will take over the area that housed Speed Networking in 2026, which is now being relocated to the Festival Hall. "That gave us the chance to rethink the larger Moscone West footprint and construct something far more substantial around one of the biggest behaviors we see at GDC: people gathering to meet and do business," he said.
Every year, thousands of industry professionals descend on San Francisco for GDC week, often filling their calendars with back‑to‑back meetings. Historically, many of these conversations have unfolded in hotel lobbies, coffee shops, conference suites, and other informal venues scattered throughout the city.
The new Business Hall provides a dedicated, purpose‑built environment for those interactions, whether an indie studio is pitching to a publisher, a start‑up is courting investors, or an executive is negotiating with partners. The Business Hall Only pass is priced at $99, a figure DeLoura describes as deliberately affordable and aimed at a broad swath of the industry.
"We recognize that there are people who attend GDC primarily for meetings and have felt that the existing pass structure didn’t serve them well. The Business Hall Only Pass offers those meeting‑focused participants an accessible gateway into the official GDC campus," he noted. The Business Hall Only pass joins two other newly introduced options: Festival Hall Only, priced at $149, and a 1‑Day Career pass at $99.
Attendees can mix and match these passes to craft a schedule that aligns with their individual goals. In 2027, GDC will also roll out two distinct passes for Indie and Start‑Up participants, each costing $299 and featuring separate eligibility criteria. Previously, indie developers and start‑ups shared a single Early Stage Indie & Start‑Up pass, but the split aims to better reflect the differing needs of established independent studios versus newer ventures. The flagship $499 Festival Pass remains the gateway to the "complete core GDC experience," granting full access to program sessions, Festival Hall, Business Hall, and the GDC Nights social program.
Additional premium options include the Game Changer pass at $1,149, the GDC Vault subscription at $649, and an Academic pass for $299. DeLoura emphasized that the Game Changer pass will continue to represent the top‑tier GDC offering, complete with exclusive benefits such as the Game Changer Lounge and other elevated experiences. Notably, the Luminaries Speaker Series, once a perk exclusive to Game Changer holders, has been expanded into a full conference track open to all attendees.
"We felt some of those conversations were simply too valuable and relevant to the broader industry to restrict them to one pass type. Broadly, we don't want great sessions behind a premium tier; we want to offer Game Changers an enhanced way to experience and navigate GDC," he explained. The GDC Summit Program will also be refined to give the community a stronger voice in shaping the talk lineup, organized around a "one discipline, one room" principle to foster focused discussion.
The Digital Pass, previously offered as a bundled product, will be discontinued for 2027. DeLoura clarified that most users valued the pass primarily for access to the GDC Vault, so the Vault will now be sold directly as a standalone subscription or add‑on, simplifying the offering for those who want on‑demand session access throughout the year. Overall, the 2027 changes are driven by a desire for greater flexibility, a goal that emerged directly from industry feedback.
"In 2026 we deliberately simplified the pass structure, but the response indicated that some people wanted more focused and affordable ways to participate depending on why they were coming. So for 2027 we kept the broader Festival and Game Changer experiences while adding more targeted options," DeLoura said. The new pass lineup allows participants to tailor their experience: a meeting‑centric attendee can select the Business Hall Only pass; a hands‑on explorer can opt for Festival Hall Only; a job‑seeker can attend career‑focused sessions with the 1‑Day Career pass. By separating Indie and Start‑Up tracks, GDC ensures that long‑standing independent studios are not excluded simply because they have existed for more than five years.
DeLoura added, "We still strongly believe in the value of the full GDC experience. However, these options recognize that not everyone comes to San Francisco for the same reason, needs the same experience, or has the same budget." The event schedule has also been adjusted.
Festival Hall will now operate from Tuesday through Thursday, rather than the previous Wednesday‑to‑Friday window, while GDC Nights will run Monday through Wednesday. Highlight events include the Developer's Concert on Monday, the GDC Awards on Tuesday, and the Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday. The shift in community‑event timing was not driven by attendance concerns but by the rhythm of GDC week. "There are hundreds of community events, studio gatherings, dinners, meetups and parties happening throughout San Francisco all week," DeLoura explained.
Moving the IGF Awards and GDC Awards to dedicated evenings proved popular, giving each ceremony space to become a marquee moment for its community. Similarly, giving the Developer's Concert its own evening highlighted the community's enthusiasm for that showcase. GDC rebranded last September, and DeLoura later provided further details, including reduced ticket pricing for sessions and the expo floor—now called Festival Hall—as well as a premium pass aimed at executives and studio leadership.
"We're always looking at how GDC can better serve the game industry, and listening to our community is a crucial part of that," DeLoura said. "After introducing the Festival of Gaming and making significant changes to the GDC experience in 2026, it was especially important that we listen closely to what worked, what could work better, and how people want to participate in GDC going forward. The industry continues to evolve, and the reasons people attend GDC are many and varied: learning, finding funding, striking deals, hiring, job hunting, meeting partners, seeing new technology, reconnecting with peers, or some combination of those." "GDC 2027 is about giving people more choices in how they participate at the show, making the week work better for the way the industry uses GDC today.
The changes are about making the event more accessible, making it easier to make meaningful connections and accomplish what you came to GDC to do," he concluded. The GDC Festival of Gaming 2027 is scheduled for March 1‑5 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.