Two $125 passes cover different days
GDC Festival of Gaming 2027 runs March 1-5, 2027 at the Moscone Center, 747 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94103. The Passes & Pricing page sells two products at the $125 Early Rate. The 1-Day Career pass carries the footnote "Friday only." The Business Hall ONLY pass covers Monday through Friday.
The FAQ answers the single-day question in one sentence: "Yes, for 2027 GDC is offering a 1-day Career pass that gives you entry to the event on Friday, March 5, where you can access our Business Hall Lobby, Career Faire, and career-focused sessions." March 5, 2027 is a Friday.
The Career Day page splits that Friday into three parts. The Career Faire puts recruiters and hiring managers from game studios in one room. Portfolio and resume review sessions cover a resume, a portfolio and a LinkedIn profile. Career development sessions cover talks, panels, office hours and workshops.
The $175 Festival Hall pass covers three days
Festival Hall ONLY sells at $175 on the Early Rate. The Festival Hall page states the change for 2027 in its own heading: "NEW FOR 2027: NOW OPEN TUESDAY-THURSDAY, March 2-4, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm." The pass covers the Festival Hall, every session and talk on the Festival floor, the Game Developers Choice Awards on Tuesday night, and the Independent Games Festival Awards on Wednesday night. It carries no entry to the Business Hall, the main GDC Program, meeting spaces or the Developer's Concert.
The Awards page confirms the placement. Both ceremonies sit inside the Game Changer, Festival, Indie, Start-up, Academic and Festival Hall ONLY passes.
The week around those two passes
The Festival programme fills five days. The Business Hall opens Monday through Friday at Moscone West. The Festival Hall opens Tuesday through Thursday at Moscone South.
The ladder above the two cheap passes runs $549 for the full Festival pass, $1,249 for Game Changer, $299 for the Indie and Start-Up pass, $299 for the Academic pass and $649 for a one-year GDC Vault subscription. The Passes & Pricing page answers the combination question and states that Business Hall Only, Festival Hall Only and the 1-Day Career pass can each be bought separately and stacked, with Business Hall Only plus Festival Hall Only as its own example. Group pricing takes 10% off current Festival or Game Changer prices at 10 or more people.
Two dates that fall before the show
The Early Rate holds until December 11 at 11:59 p.m. PT. The FAQ records the Super Early Rate as closed on Friday, October 9 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Registration, cancellation, substitution and upgrade requests must reach the registration team on or before February 5, 2027. A cancellation of a Festival Hall Only, Business Hall Only or 1-Day Career pass costs $75. The pass tiers above them carry a $250 cancellation fee. Housing runs through onPeak, which GDC names as its official partner, with a sub block agreement required at 12 or more rooms. The page publishes no nightly rate and warns against unaffiliated sellers.
The day rooms inside a quarter mile
hotelSlots sells daytime slots. Its home page lists 103,857+ hotels across 46 states and four slots: Morning 6 a.m. to noon, Afternoon noon to 6 p.m., Evening 6 p.m. to midnight, and Overnight midnight to 6 a.m. The platform states that one slot or several can combine for full-day coverage, that a day-use room typically runs 6 to 8 hours, and that day-use rates run 30-75% less than the nightly rate at the same hotel. Its rate article puts a day slot at roughly 40% to 60% of the nightly figure and lists pool, gym, wi-fi and shower access as included.
The Festival Hall sits in Moscone South at 747 Howard Street. Straight-line distances from that address put Canopy by Hilton San Francisco SoMa 0.10 miles out, W San Francisco 0.12 miles, The St. Regis San Francisco 0.15 miles, the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Downtown SOMA 0.21 miles, the San Francisco Marriott Marquis 0.21 miles and The Mosser Hotel 0.22 miles. The Intercontinental San Francisco sits 0.23 miles out and Hotel Zelos San Francisco 0.25 miles. All eight are platform directory members.
Eight San Francisco day rates read October 15, 2026 on the city's day-use listing: The Mosser Hotel $91, Hotel Caza Fisherman's Wharf $107, the Hilton San Francisco Financial District $116, Axiom Hotel San Francisco $122, Hotel Zeppelin San Francisco $138, Hotel Zelos San Francisco $144, Hotel Zetta San Francisco $152 and Taj Campton Place $159. The listing's own body reads an average of $119.61 for a day room in the city. Those eight cards average $128.63.
The windows line up with a show floor that opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. The Mosser Hotel posts 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., noon to 7 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. The Hilton San Francisco Financial District posts one window, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A Morning slot covers the two hours before the floor opens.
The venue publishes no on-site parking and names Montgomery station on BART and MUNI for Moscone North and South, Powell station for Moscone West, and the Caltrain station at 4th and Townsend Streets.
What the two passes leave out
The 1-Day Career pass carries no entry to the Festival Hall, the main GDC Program, meeting spaces or the award nights. The Festival Hall ONLY pass carries no entry to the Business Hall. A delegate who wants the floor, the awards and a Friday of career programming buys both cheap passes. A delegate who wants the full programme buys the $549 Festival pass.
