GDC 2026: How Samsung and International Game Studios Are Transforming the Gaming Experience
At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Festival of Gaming 2026, taking place from March 9-13 in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, developers, technical experts, and industry professionals came together to explore how recent advancements in display technology are transforming the PC gaming landscape.
During the event, Samsung Electronics presented its latest Odyssey gaming monitors and technologies at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis. The company gathered gaming industry leaders, fans, and media for an exclusive look at the Odyssey gaming monitor series and to play some of the most popular PC games, including “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Hell is Us.”
Throughout the week, the Samsung Odyssey Gaming Lounge served as a hub for immersive PC visuals, featuring innovative demos, spontaneous reactions, and open discussions about the future of advanced gaming displays.
Developers Experience the Potential of Glasses-Free 3D Gaming
At the heart of the showcase was Odyssey 3D. Utilizing sophisticated eye-tracking and view-mapping technology, this monitor provides a glasses-free 4K 3D display that adjusts depth in real time as players move in front of it, offering an entirely new and immersive gameplay experience.
Samsung
Developers, media representatives, and partners eagerly lined up to experience the thrilling “Hell is Us” from Rogue Factor in 3D on the 27-inch Odyssey 3D (G90XF) prior to its upcoming release in Samsung’s 3D gaming library.
"Samsung has been a leader in 3D gaming. I play a wide range of genres from horror to FPS, and this technology is truly going to enhance my experience."
— Ashley Rodgers, gaming content creator
“Hell is Us” attracted a significant crowd, with eager visitors wanting to navigate the game’s tight spaces, distant shapes, and subtle environmental hints in glasses-free 3D. Participants noted that it was easier to determine their next move and experience the thrill and suspense of each moment without losing the game’s mystery.
“Cronos: The New Dawn” highlighted a different aspect of 3D gaming with its launch trailer. The added depth made every scene feel more immersive, enhancing players' perception of scale and atmosphere.
“Samsung understands games and the minds of developers, a perspective that hardware companies often overlook.”
— Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, Creative Director, Rogue Factor
Next-Gen Displays Captivate Technical Leaders
HDR10+ GAMING quickly became a hot topic among attendees. Instead of using trial-and-error calibration screens, developers observed as the game feed relayed scene-by-scene information to the monitor, ensuring highlights, shadows, and colors remained true to what they observe in their own builds.
Samsung
Developers and media were also drawn to the 32-inch Odyssey G8 6K (G80HS), exploring how higher resolution impacts user interfaces and environmental details. In complex scenes filled with dense 4K UHD elements, the additional pixels maintained sharpness without necessitating changes to the game’s original art style.
With the 27-inch Odyssey G6 (G60H), the emphasis shifted to performance. With a 1,040Hz refresh rate, visitors evaluated how swiftly camera pans, targeting, and rapid inputs appeared on screen, considering implications for future competitive and high-performance games.
“With our established history in hardware and software innovation, we’re collaborating with global gaming studios to clearly define a path for compatibility. Ultimately, it’s about providing an outstanding gaming experience for our customers.”
— Kevin Lee, EVP of Customer Experience, Visual Display (VD) Business, Samsung Electronics
A separate roundtable convened industry leaders, including Jakub Knapik, VP of Art and Global Art Director of CD Projekt RED; Yves Bordeleau, Founder and Head of Studio at Rogue Factor; Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, Creative Director at Rogue Factor; Piotr Babieno, Founder and CEO of Bloober Team; and Samsung’s EVP of Customer Experience, Kevin Lee.
Samsung
Emerging studios discussed leveraging new display technologies to innovate and take creative risks, while larger publishers concentrated on establishing standards that could adapt across diverse genres and platforms. The group compared their approaches to implementing new display features across different engines and franchises — from integrating HDR10+ GAMING and 3D to determining which characteristics are appropriate for competitive versus narrative-driven games.
"I truly believe HDR10+ is a significant advance in color reproduction that we’ve all been anticipating. It will allow players to experience our true artistic vision — along with a much more immersive high dynamic range."
— Jakub Knapik, VP of Art and Global Art Director, CD Projekt RED
For industry leaders, experiencing their own content live on Odyssey gaming monitors transformed theoretical specifications into tangible benefits they could see and evaluate on screen. Samsung’s GDC 2026 showcase facilitated a clearer assessment of how combinations of glasses-free 3D, HDR10+ GAMING, resolution, and refresh rate will be vital for the games developers are currently creating.
Samsung
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GDC 2026: How Samsung and International Game Studios Are Transforming the Gaming Experience
At GDC 2026, Samsung showcased how Odyssey 3D and HDR10+ GAMING are revolutionizing the gaming experience. By collaborating with international studios, the company is expanding its 3D library to over 120 titles, providing an immersive experience without the need for glasses.