Games Industry has Average Salary of $79,000

[Guest]

The 8th annual Game Developer Salary Survey was released today, and the average 2008 salary of an American in the games industry is $79,000, up seven percent from 2007.

Games Industry has Average Salary of $79,000 : Read more

 

[collisionss]

and the FED just prints infinite amounts at no charge

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFdhGJEEwLI&feature=channel_page

 

[jerreece]

I'm in the wrong line of work. 😉

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

it's not that lot when you are working 80+ hours a week.

 

[Guest]

Hmm... And yet they complain about piracy, cheeky bastards, the lot of em.

 

[tayb]

Computer science or computer engineering will net you plenty of money upon graduation, if you manage to make it through the course work.

 

[that_aznpride101]

I'm also curious how many hours they work as well.

 

[tayb]

I can guarantee you they are not working 80+ hours a week. That is outrageous. A little math can all but disprove that. 80+ hours a week equates to a 16 hour work day M-F or an 11+ work day 7 days a week. Neither of those are even remotely accurate. These guys might work more than the average 40 a week schedule but you might be talking about 45 hours, not 80.

 

[Ridik876]

How do I become a game designer? I have a 25 page "white paper" for a game design that I'll be finishing in June. Any tips?

 

[tayb]

Go to a technical school (Devry for example) and get a degree or go to a University and get a degree.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]Article[/nom]The unsung heroes of game development took home slightly more than $39,000 a year, with almost no salary growth over 2007.[/citation]
How little is that in comparison to other professions? It seems low to me, as I'm getting about 53K usd a year - and I'm even employed by a school - and those aren't exactly swimming in funds in my country.

 

[Zingam]

There are 1-2 good games every 2-3 years... most newer games are just photocopies of older ones - nothing new, everything is so repetitive - boring...
I'm sorry but games are overpriced and game developers earn too much for what they do...
The stupid little games made by 1-2 persons years ago had more value than most of the plagiary of today.

 

[Zingam]

...except maybe the audio designer - most games have actually good sounds... or I am deaf

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]zingam[/nom]There are 1-2 good games every 2-3 years... most newer games are just photocopies of older ones - nothing new, everything is so repetitive - boring...I'm sorry but games are overpriced and game developers earn too much for what they do...The stupid little games made by 1-2 persons years ago had more value than most of the plagiary of today.[/citation]

Couldn't agree less!
When I look back in time, there's been an underwhelming amount of variation in gaming. There's been a lot of good rts games in the past that seem to be almost gone now, but there has never been so varied games as there are now. Quality is relative, and if you disregard rushed ea stuff, games are of a better quality now than they were in the past too.

I'm buying considerably more than 1-2 games in a 2-3 year timespan, and I'm rarely disappointed by my purchases.

 

[captaincharisma]

they should be making more than that now that everyone is milking downloadable content now. come on! you have to pay to unlock something that was already on the disk? (resident evil 5)

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]they should be making more than that now that everyone is milking downloadable content now. come on! you have to pay to unlock something that was already on the disk? (resident evil 5)[/citation]

DLC is a new way to make people actually pay the game, instead of pirate it. Makes it more complicated for pirates - although for legit gamers as well. On a side note - it isn't nessecarily a good idea for developers to do it like that. If they've created a bunch of shit, it's better to sell the whole stack at once, than sell first part, and hope people will be stupid enough to pay the second half even if the first was rubbish.

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

Looks like I need to move into the gaming industry.

 

[Guest]

Of course, executives and marketing people deserve the most pay, they obviously play the most important role in something like this, where creativity and technical skill make-or-break the game, so of course it's the people with neither who make it all possible. If I ever have a kid, and he/she turns out to be a complete dumb-ass, then I'm sending him/her to Columbia University for their renowned MBA course, just to prove that anyone can do it.

 

[tenor77]

[citation][nom]hillarymakesmecry[/nom]Looks like I need to move into the gaming industry.[/citation]

Then learn to program. I'd recommend going with C# and XNA to learn the basics as well as doing mods for games.

 

[njalterio]

They may be making $79K a year, but most of those jobs are in the Silicon Valley, where home prices are sky high. Everything is more expensive.

[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]Go to a technical school (Devry for example) and get a degree or go to a University and get a degree.[/citation]

Are you serious? Devry is on par with a community college. Devry is not even accredited for B.S. degrees in engineering, only the two year version (which is far less useful) in engineering technology.
If you want to be a game developer, get a B.S. in Computer Science from a real university.