“Hearing about European citizens being arrested by border control over their views on America is not something I would want to experience for myself,” said Nazih Fares, a French-Lebanese citizen and creative director of indie studio Le Cabinet du Savoir.
Attendees, many of them wearing face masks, wait in a line outside the 2022 Game Developers Conference
Credit: Getty Images
Attendees, many of them wearing face masks, wait in a line outside the 2022 Game Developers Conference
Credit: Getty Images
Despite these stories circulating, many international developers who had planned to attend the 2025 GDC decided it was too late to cancel. But that doesn’t mean his presence last year felt normal. “The agent at the border was very intrusive, even more than the usual ‘ah, brown people’ racism,” Neha Patel, a freelancer and audio director at Pamplemose Games, said of her 2025 trip. “He asked a Very Questions related to my employment, roles and studio. I lied and said I didn’t have US clients nor did I admit that I worked as a freelancer. I was very scared.”
be prepared
Some companies took additional steps to ensure the safety of employees who chose to attend GDC 2025. “Last year, every studio representative received an additional safety briefing and [our company] “Helped prepare the legal paperwork for everyone in case they got in trouble with ICE or immigration,” a developer at a big-budget studio, who asked to remain anonymous, told Ars. “Fortunately, no one did that, but there was definitely some fear among those who went and those who chose not to go. “As far as I know, we are not planning any physical presence for 2026.”
Other developers told Ars about the personal precautions they took before coming to the US for the show.
“I felt compelled to send copies of my itinerary, passport and other IDs, speaker information, etc. to at least three other people who were not attending, with instructions that if I did not contact them by the specified time to let them know I had disembarked and cleared security, that they should take my information to the Australian Consulate,” said Jesse Lau, a senior producer at Amsterdam’s Twirlbound, who has worked there every year since 2017. Have participated in GDC.
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