Canadian Devs Are Backing Out of Attending GDC

Indie game developer Vivid Foundry, like many other small studios, has been struggling to stay afloat. Its debut title, Solace State, did not make the commercial splash the team had hoped for when it launched in 2023. The studio has been barely making ends meet as of late and is searching for clients and freelance gigs to keep itself afloat. For Toronto-based director and producer Tanya Kan, a huge part of that effort is a visit to the annual Game Developers Conference held each March in San Francisco.

Or it was, until Kan and her partner Gary Kings, a game trailer maker, canceled their trip on March 12, mere days before they planned to leave. Kan and Kings, like some other international developers, no longer felt safe traveling to the United States. “We came to the conclusion that the risk of something happening to us is still relatively low, but it’s too big to ignore, especially for a games conference,” Kings says.

Every year, several key gaming events take place in the US, including DICE, PAX West and PAX East, Summer Games Fest, and GDC; it was also the home of the now defunct E3. Although each event is different, they are often a place for developers to connect with peers, pitch platforms and publishers, work on professional development, and show off their work. In the days leading up to GDC, however, Trump’s comments about annexation and Canada as a “51st state,” as well as calling its border “an artificial line” drawn on a map; rising tensions amid tariff trade wars; and news reports of detainments at the American borders are increasingly making some developers nervous.

On LinkedIn, Hinterland founder Raphael van Lierop urged Canadian developers and colleagues to reconsider their GDC attendance. “You can no longer expect to travel to the US and return safely,” van Lierop posted. “Things are getting intense and they are going to get worse before they get better. Do not put yourself in a position where you are unable to get back into Canada, or where your Canadian citizenship is used against you.”

Van Lierop’s post had been divisive among developers, drawing criticism from some who call it fear-mongering. Others, however, feel there are good reasons to be concerned about traveling to the United States. In the two months since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has rapidly changed US policies, leading to decreased safety around flights, passport confiscation at US borders, and mounting tensions between the US and Canada.

Earlier this month, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University was arrested and detained for his involvement in pro-Palestine protests last year; the current administration now seeks to revoke the student’s green card and deport him. Van Lierop highlighted this concern in his post as well, for anyone who has “been supportive of any causes or expressed any values that run contrary to the tastes of the current administration in the US.”