As developers gather in Las Vegas for the first major games industry event of the year, reports suggest many are simply trying to "survive" the next 12 months - and GTA 6 might be key to that survival.

The DICE Awards are a prestigious annual ceremony that sees a substantial gathering of games industry professionals. This year, amid the backdrop of cancellations and redundancies that are sweeping the industry, the tone of the awards is said to be more somber than normal, with some reporting that developers are simply hoping to laꦉst into next year, when the market might be less volatile.

Developer and documentary-maker Danny O'Dwyer tweeted his impressions of the show after two days at the DICE conference, suggesting that core themes of his conversations are that publishers and venture capitalists are offering "minimal investment," and that there's worry about the "ever-increasing cost of AAA development" amid "little core-market expansion." As well as a dig at Embracer Group - the company responsible for many of those re🔯dundancies and closur𓄧es - O'Dwyer says that the ♛overriding sentiment of the conference i𝓡s a need to "Survive 24."

That sentiment was echoed by Mat Piscatella, executive director at analyst firm Circana. He said that "'Survive 2024' has been the key theme of my convos with publishers and retailers so far this year as well." With spending remaining flat and no signific༒ant room for increased player count or playtime, as well as rising costs, he suggests that the "market's gotta get to GTA 6 and hope."

That's a somewhat bleak outlook, not least because I'm not expecting GTA 6 until well into 2025. Rockstar's next game is likely to drive substantial spend across the industry, but betting everything on o✅ne game certainly feels risky. But against the backdrop of ꧙thousands of layoffs in 2024 already, it's certainly likely to be an extremely difficult year for game developers.

There are still some big games coming this year, so check out our list of 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new games 2024.