Report > 2026 State of Real-Time Workflows Report: Game Technology & Beyond
Predictions and Sentiments
Last year, we asked respondents where game engine technology and generative AI were taking their industries. This year, we asked again, and the conversation has only gotten sharper.
We took those insights straight to our team of Perforce experts, pairing frontline predictions with hands-on analysis. The result is a real dialogue: practitioners on the ground meeting specialists who see these shifts play out across studios and teams.
Below, you'll find direct quotes from survey respondents alongside our team's take, giving you both the view from the trenches and the context to know what it means for 2026.
How has the evolution of game engine technology shaped your industry so far, and what changes do you expect over the next 3 years?
“Over the next three years, I expect three major shifts. First, deeper integration of generative AI and procedural systems directly inside engines will accelerate asset creation, animation, and gameplay prototyping, allowing smaller teams to achieve much higher production scale. Second, engines will increasingly function as real-time simulation platforms that power not only games but also virtual production, training, and interactive media. Third, workflows will become more modular and data-driven, with live content pipelines enabling continuous updates and experimentation after launch. The biggest creative impact may actually be cultural: as production constraints fall, the bottleneck shifts from asset creation to design vision. Engines will increasingly empower small teams to explore novel mechanics and player experiences rather than focusing primarily on large-scale content production.”
CTO, Game Development
In Response to Above
"the bottleneck shifts from asset creation to design vision"
This is spot-on, and it really applies to any industry adopting AI right now. It's never been easier to build something, however, if you lack taste, you'll build something with a lot of capabilities that nobody understands. Being willing and able to say "no" to requests is becoming increasingly important as each day passes.
Brent Schiestl
Perforce Senior Director of Product Management
Smaller teams can produce better games. If AI progress continues, teams might converge to solopreneurs or 3-person lead-only teams (tech, art, business). At the same time, the games market will become ever more crowded, exacerbating the already severe problem of new teams having difficulty getting their games noticed (All is well, of course, if you're an established company or creator with a devout fanbase).
Executive Producer, Indie or midsize game studio
In Response to Above
Small teams doing outsized things isn't new to me as indie devs have been punching above their weight for years. What I think actually changes here isn't the team-size ceiling, it's the production challenge underneath it: when a 3-person team can suddenly move at a pace that used to take 30 people, the hard part becomes keeping "the fun" — the reason you set out to build the thing in the first place — intact while everything around it speeds up. Speed was never the scarce resource in game dev; taste and judgment were, and I don't think AI changes that math, it just raises the cost of losing sight of it. On the crowded-market point, I'd agree, but I'd point at a different bottleneck than noise: funding. Most small teams can't scale past a prototype until they've proven the game is actually fun, so the concept phase is carrying even more weight than it used to - nail it and you can go find your audience; fumble it and no amount of visibility saves you.
Johan Karlsson
Perforce Principal Product Manager
We've always leveraged gaming technologies, but nothing has specifically shaped our work. However, the impact of Gen AI is enabling more efficient workflows, improved collaboration, and faster content creation, though we must be careful to protect IP ownership while allowing our own creations to shine.
Founder/CTO, Enterprise VR Workplace Safety Training
Production scales have shifted to become more aggressive, with smaller teams, limited budget, with similar scope to what we had on larger teams. We need more time to share and iterate, and any tool that increases iteration cycles, while being remote friendly is extremely valuable. This can be build systems that decrease build times so QA can get more cycles on a build, to in-editor iteration workflows, so designers can play and tweak quickly. One change we will need is continued need for more data, so everyone can easily make informed decisions. Editors, build pipelines, collaboration tools all need to make data accessible to teams.
Test Engineer, AAA Game Studio
Game engines continue to democratize game development, leading to shorter development times and more experimental games gaining traction. I expect to see more quickly built viral game successes that rely on an audience that quickly moves on from them to the next thing – games as social media.
Software Architect, Indie Studio
In Response to Above
Looking at the report I wonder if the quote is crediting the wrong layer, and should focus more on AI than game engines? I do buy the "games as social media" pattern for a slice of the market - quickly built, quickly consumed, audience moves on to the next thing. But I don't think that becomes the whole story. There's still real appetite for the crafted, immersive experience that takes genuine time and taste to build, and I don't see AI or faster engines replacing that demand - if anything, it makes that kind of craft more of a differentiator, not less. My guess is we don't converge on one model at all: we get both ends stretching at once, more width from cheap, disposable, viral titles, and more depth from teams leaning into immersive craft precisely because it's no longer the default.
Johan Karlsson
Perforce Principal Product Manager
I don't see how teams will survive unless they embrace AI workflows and process improvements. We've reduced legacy pipelines in some cases from 2 months to 2 days. We still need human hands to touch content and code but automation has streamlined our game development to the point where 20 people are doing the work of 50.
Game Director, Indie Studio
In Response to Above
For those that have embraced AI workflows, most cannot imagine going back. It's interesting to see the competing dynamics at play though where Steam currently requires developers to disclose any generative AI usage that directly impacts players in-game or in marketing materials and the Godot Foundation has recently banned the use of AI to generate substantial code for the Godot engine.
Brent Schiestl
Perforce Senior Director of Product Management
The Dialogue Continues on "In Development"
"In Development" spotlights the technical leaders behind some of today’s most ambitious projects—in game development, animation, VFX, and beyond. We cut through the marketing gloss to reveal how industry vets solved their biggest production challenges. Each conversation unpacks the technical mindsets and invisible infrastructure bringing breakthrough creative work to life.
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