By nearly every metric, 2025 was difficult for most in the games industry and many of our clients felt the impact. This year the industry continued to recalibrate amid slower growth, investor caution, and widespread restructuring. Despite these headwinds, the IE Law Group supported 102 unique clients in the sector across 19 countries, expanded our team, and strengthened many of our global partnerships. As the industry prepares for renewal in 2026, our focus remains clear: resilience, adaptability, and advocacy for the betterment of our clients!
Because of this uniquely challenging year, we thought it would be useful for us to take a deeper look back and provide our observations, theories and prognostications. We will do this in two parts: Part 1 recaps our efforts throughout the year to see more and be more for our clients. And ultimately, sum up the overarching themes we saw across all of the deals we worked on.
Next week, in Part 2, we will take a deeper dive into the bright side: trends emerging that we believe will be part of the solution to the madness; clients that swam upstream and found a way to prosper in a down year; and finally, our predictions for things to expect in 2026.
2025 Conferences/Events:
As always, our year and our perceptions about the industry are based in large part on communications with clients, our vast network of contacts and other industry leaders. Much of that occurs through informal interactions at conferences, trade shows, supper clubs and various social events all over the globe. This year was no different, as the IE Law Group team followed the industry to gatherings near and far. Over the course of these events, we interacted with hundreds of game executives across all facets of the business, getting their thoughts on our collective direction. Through the dozen plus events we attended in 2025, here are our impressions:
| EVENT | TONE/TAKEAWAY |
| DICE (Las Vegas, NV) ~ February | Always our first industry event of the calendar year. In 2025, D.I.C.E was characterized by cautious and reflective tone among a small group of industry leaders. Attendee vibe is moving more to a GDC-like atmosphere (not necessarily in a good way). |
| GDC (San Francisco, CA) ~ March | GDC is always our “flagship” event, with our entire team on-site and a full meeting schedule. This year, most of our time was centered in and around our home base hotel (I think I left once)! Our meetings were generally more positive than DICE, but the relatively empty streets and hotel lobbies conveyed a different tone. Our week was capped off with a rooftop cocktail party at the Zelos Hotel co-sponsored by our friends at Double Black Capital, SRS Acquiom, and Void Interactive. |
| LA Games Conference (Los Angeles, CA) ~ April | Solid event made better by the amazing speaker quality! Not as focused on networking and the panels were great but too packed for a short session. |
| Reboot Develop Blue (Dubrovnik, Croatia) ~ April | IE Law Group continued its affiliation with Reboot’s organizers in 2025 and programmed three days of panel discussions on a dedicated stage at the event…the room was SRO all week! Aside from the great content on all the stages, it’s clear that Reboot needs some help to stay afloat (Damir, where are you?). |
| Gamescom LATAM (Sao Paolo, Brazil) ~ May | This event cemented the notion that the LATAM region is no longer “emerging”…it is here! LATAM has shown itself to be a place where meaningful opportunities (and talent) reside. |
| Gamesbeat (Los Angeles, CA) ~ May | Best event of the year! We had minimal expectations but the speaker quality was off the charts and the schedule was the perfect blend of panels and networking. Bravo GB team! |
| VGBA Summit (Los Angeles, CA) ~ June | Near and dear to our hearts, the annual legal pilgrimage to LA was top notch in 2025. Definitely the premier legal-centric event in the US for game attorneys. Kudos to Amy Allison and the entire team at the Video Game Bar Association! |
| Seminario internacional Industria de Videojuegos de Valdivia (Valdivia, Chile) ~ June | Focusing on dev studios in Chile, it unveiled the real potential of Chilean studios, along with a long-term government partnership that could serve as a model to reshape how governments can support their creative industries. The name of this event is a mouthful! We need something that rolls off the tongue! |
| Gamescom (Cologne, Germany) ~ August | Ah Cologne…what can I say. Gamescom has been a cornerstone event for IE Law for over a decade. Marriott lobby, truffle pasta, DDM/Epic/IE Law cocktail party. Excelsior! Lots of positive chatter about the prospect of an uptick in activity! |
| Games Industry Law Summit (Vilnius, Lithuania) ~ August | A reminder of the global nature of the legal sector of our industry and how quickly it is evolving. It is a great pulse check on where our peers see future pitfalls and opportunity. Vilnius will be missed as the event moves to Berlin in 2026. |
| DICE Europe (Edinburgh, Scotland) ~ September | Very rarely does a city take such a definable role in a conference. Edinburgh shined. The Scots did not disappoint in their hospitality or showcasing all the local talent! Thanks to 4J in particular! |
| Goodbody/IDA Ireland Summit (London, England) ~ September | Amazing, one-day event. Three panels to inspire conversation and a room full of attendees that could each have easily keynoted most other events! Definitely the best room to be in of the year. |
| Colombia 4.0 (Barranquilla, Colombia) ~ November | The Colombian studio talent is undeniable. However, this event needs to step up to its previous high standards to better match the expectations of today’s industry. |
| VGBA Summit Northwest (Seattle, WA) ~ November | Another great source of information and networking for the US legal community. Us lawyers need to stay in touch and in the loop! Watch out for the bingo and Malort. |
| GamesBeat Next (San Francisco, CA) ~ November | A compact, well curated conference with an interesting speaker lineup that included diverse but successful companies. While it was not a heavy networking focused event, its compact setting facilitated connecting with Bay Area colleagues and helping others make connections as well. |
| American Film Market (Los Angeles, CA) ~ November | The American Film Market returned to Los Angeles in 2025 and, for the first time in its 44-year history, formally included voices from the games sector in an organized panel at the event. IE Law Group was invited to moderate the discussion. The key takeaway: the relationship between games and Hollywood remains a work in progress, but it was clear that there is much excitement on both sides for future collaborations! |
| Video Game Awards (Los Angeles, CA) ~ December | Turning into the best E3 substitute. All networking in the lobby of the JW Marriott. Light on meetings, perfect place to catch up with everyone rolling into town for end of the year accolades (and related dinners/parties). |
This is probably a good time to note that our perspectives are ours alone based on our participation in these events. There are so many other conferences and events that we couldn’t attend that might give us a different point of view!
PocketGamer, DevGamm, NZGDC, AVA, MIGS & XDS come to mind as well as DevPlay, ChinaJoy, G-Star and many others too numerous to list here. DevGamm in particular (Portugal) seemed to get rave reviews for its organization! Definitely one to put on your radar for the future. All of them have value and operate in a unique place in the industry. In a perfect world, we would be at each of them! But since that’s impossible, we count on you and always appreciate your perspectives. If there is an event you think we SHOULD be at, let us know!
Information Sources and Community Platforms:
Conferences are not the only way we gather information and insights on the industry. Keeping up with trade publications and newsletters has always been a key part of it and how many of us begin our day. This year, the trade press took a leap forward with 2 new outlets:
· GB Max ~Dean Takahashi’s new offering, GB Max, put a new spin on his already-great GamesBeat circuit of events. The GB Max subscription and added value was an easy purchase and has not disappointed!
· The Games Business ~ Chris Dring’s new venture, The Games Business is quickly becoming a must-read source of aggregated industry news and content. Well done, Chris!
In addition, and as always, we continued to rely on newsletters and information sources sent by our peers and colleagues in the industry. Many of our peer law firms along with most of the agencies, bankers and venture funds offer their unique perspectives in the same way that our own firm newsletter does (shameless plug…you can subscribe here).
Internal Firm News:
Although not nearly as exciting as our client’s news or some of the broader games industry news as a whole (at least the positive stories), we did some “cool stuff” too! At its core, the IE Law Group has always been a small, boutique firm and a cohesive team and work family. Some of our “news-y” items are not noteworthy on an industry scale, but we are super proud of them.
· In July, Aryeh Richmond joined the IE Law Group team. His long-standing games and tech background at Tencent and Netflix (to name a few) has already been a significant value addition to many of our clients. Personally, Aryeh and I have talked about working together for over 10 years. I’m relieved to finally bring that opportunity to fruition.
· In other staffing news, Alex Nealon completed his first full year as an Associate with the firm. Be careful what you ask for!!! Alex really came into his own and I’m looking forward to his continued growth as a member of our team. His enthusiasm is far stronger than his sea legs! Be sure to ask Alex about his complicated relationship with the GypSea.
· Client Reach: As noted above, our team counseled 102 unique clients served across 19 countries. Whether large or small, publicly traded or start-up, we are proud of the depth of our client base and grateful for the trust our clients have in us!
· Community Support: Industry layoffs are difficult and we are always trying to do our part to help those impacted. That assistance can take many forms. For example, earlier this year, when Microsoft laid off approximately 6,000 people from their games group, the IE Law Group team offered free consultation and entity formation for any entrepreneurs coming out of those layoffs. Obviously, anything we do is only a small drop in the bucket for those affected. We were proud able to assist and stand up 10 new start-ups! We’re excited to see what they will do!
Industry Takeaways:
Before we dive into our thoughts on the year (as well as our predictions for 2026), please note this important caveat (after all, we are lawyers):
Our perspective is informed primarily by advising a cross-section of the games industry, primarily independent studios, small-to-mid-size publishers, and growth-stage tech companies across multiple regions. We are not “in the loop” regarding the internal strategies of the largest platform holders or global publishers. Our opinions are based on the deals and patterns we see from our clients but also from trends and announcements that we observe. Our inherent value is in our wisdom and what follows is based on that.
It would be easy to say that layoffs, contraction and restructuring are the prevailing themes of the industry in 2025. Yes, that’s true. BUT, the real theme is why these layoffs occurred.
What do all the heart-breaking job losses have in common and what (if anything) does it say about the state of the games business in 2025?
This was a hard one to pin down. Our clients operate in all sectors of the business. So a driving factor for one of our clients might not be a concern at all for the others.
It’s hard to find a commonality across all of the large publishers, small publishers, AAA studios, indies, co-dev groups, tech companies, content licensors, marketing companies, bankers, agents, consultants and government entities that we work with on an annual basis! If there is one theme that seemed to run across all the deals we advised on in 2025, it would be this:
“De-Risking Becomes Doctrine”
A consistent theme we saw among many of the deals we were involved with this year was a serious re-allocation of risk profile. More and more, risks and responsibilities were shifted (or attempted to be shifted) in a way that was beyond the “usual.”
A lot of this is intuitive. Of course, investors and publishers want to choose the less risky opportunities where possible. Everyone wants to do less, cut corners, become more efficient and pass the buck to someone else.
It was clear that contracting parties simply did not want to shoulder any additional risk on a business that always carries an inherent chance of failure. In many cases, this was accompanied by the same EXPECTATIONS on return, revenue sharing and other commercial terms. This means worse deals or more opportunities for a deal to fall apart during the negotiation. As a result, in many cases, negotiations were slower than usual and deals took longer to conclude.
Other consequences of de-risking include longer time periods to evaluate deals, more traditional publisher responsibilities foisted on the development studio and de-centralized production (to shave costs). Each of these CAN accomplish the goal of de-risking a publishing deal. However, they also result in less deals and more deals with potential for poor execution. Longer lead time prior to a deal often results in fewer “shots on goal.”
Outside of the publisher/developer dynamic, de-risking showed itself in other ways. In many respects, the industry’s massive “gold rush” towards AI as a core development tool is simply another way to de-risk an investment. It’s naturally designed for efficiency and lower cost for (theoretically) the same resulting work product.
This left a small handful of game “buyers” on the publishing side with a glut of game content to choose from. Naturally, these buyers have all the leverage (even more than usual) in choosing the MOST de-risked opportunities, leaving the remaining content “too risky.”
Many publishers ended up with a self-fulfilling prophecy of a diminished portfolio of releases where the failure may look even larger!
The games left without a publisher were often released independently (i.e., without the collaborative insights that good partnerships can often provide). The reality is that some of these games will not be as good or as polished or poorly marketed and not discoverable. But, at the same time, self-publishing tools and services are leveling the playing field and innovative/alternative partnerships are beginning to emerge.
All if this was not occurring in a vacuum. At the same time, residual fallout from the delayed Microsoft/Activision deal did NOT result in Microsoft being an active buyer/investor again. This may be something we see again with WB/Netflix/Skydance potentially pausing smaller deals while they sort out their larger situation.
Add in the contractions among some of the Asian publishers and the recent EA deal alongside the de-risking scare and you end up with a snowballing lack of chairs left when the music stops.
Too much content costing too much money with an alarming low level of innovation or production value along with a smaller and very cautious circle of buyers. Not a recipe for growth and industry-wide success!
Yet success did occur and continues to occur. Contrary to perception, the industry grew overall, albeit modestly.
The “de-risk, self-perpetuating fear circle” can also provide clues for the way out of the darker days.
Next week, in Part 2, will talk about some of our perspectives on the pathway out of the darkness. We will call out a few of our clients that have done an exceptional job in 2025 and succeeded despite the industry headwinds. Finally, we will give our thoughts about what to expect in 2026.
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