Average game industry salary drops
by Justin McElroy 
{ Apr 2nd 2007 at 10:32AM }
So, when your top-shelf console releases increase from $50 to $60, where does that extra $10 go? (Besides, Gamestop, obviously.) Gamasutra helped narrow the possibilities on Sunday when it reported a drop in the average American game industry salary to $73,316 in 2006, down from $75,039 the year before.Parents disheartened that their youngster wants to be the guy who creates the next Marcus Fenix may want to push them towards becoming the guy who sues people for making dolls of the next Marcus Fenix. Lawyers and business staffers lead the pack in the industry, making $95,596 on average last year.
Programmers are next on the list, pulling down $80,886 in 2006, followed by production staffers at $77,131, audio employees at $69,935, artists at $65,107 and game designers, making an average wage of $61,538. The lowest paid group by far was quality assurance personnel at $37,861.
Not included in the survey: The reported 100 rainbows Shigeru Miyamoto is paid every time his games bring joy to someone's heart.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sheppy @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:36AM
I wish I could say I'm drastically underpaid ($35K a year) as a 3D artist... but I get hella benefits and cost of living here is microscopic.
Jack of No Trades @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:41AM
@sheppy.
Do you use Maya, Lightwave, and 3D Studio Max?
I've have 3DMAX 6 at home. Its fun modeling up a brick houses then applying mass to each individual brick and put it into a simulation then use your cursor to move one out to make the house crumble. Or apply the ragdoll modifier and throw a charater down some stairs.
I tried Maya but it was harder to use.
MagWheels @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:13AM
Huh. I'm surprised that game designers are near the bottom of the pay scale. I thought that they're senior people with a lot of influence, but I guess not. Can any game industry people comment on that?
JodyAnthony @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:50AM
Sorry but the fact that they earn twice what i earn makes it hard for me to feel bad for them. Even the QA guys make on average $3k more than me.
Stupid jobs.
sheppy @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:54AM
I normally use Maya for a bulk of my content creation and UV mapping. From there, I normally go to Zbrush (but all that stuff, I can't show yet.... arggggh!). I tried 3DSM and about the only think I dig from it is pelt mapping. Also tried Lightwave but could never get the hang of it.
At work though, I primarily use Creator. Don't even look it up. It's hella expensive. But it handles multilayer texturing like a dream.
As for learning any software, it's always just a matter of setting aside some time and just pounding away on things. Like I suck at organic modeling so all last weekend, I was working on a game character of mine (hoping to add her to Tribes Vengeance) but while I was pounding away on the hair and having Samurai Champloo playing on the second monitor, I broke my puter.....
Gotta wait for a part to come in from Newegg before I even try to fix it.
Zertoss @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:57AM
Ouch. I'm a web developer, and I only make about $23k a year now. Now I feel slightly more worthless. :(
Damn you, Joystiq!
anonymous @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:12AM
So you mean that when you start to outsource white collar knowledge-based work, domestic salaries for that job go down? Wow, shocking!
CAL_GORE @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:14AM
"Not included in the survey: The reported 100 rainbows Shigeru Miyamoto is paid every time his games bring joy to someone's heart."
I love you Mr.McElroy. Comedic gold!
shase @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:13AM
I wish i started out doing game programming... but got stuck as Software Engineer. Its pretty much too late now since many game studios want at least X games produced or programmed on their requirements. I have a friend who is attending Full Flight- he said its a very good game desing school and you get full rights to what you make.
anonymous @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:17AM
Also, $75k or more is nothing if you're living in the Bay Area (where most game developers are head quartered). Your power is double the cost in other cities. Apartment rent is a good thousand bucks for a one bedroom. General cost of living is at least 150% that of anywhere else. Plus you have 9.3% state tax *AND* something like 9% sales tax.
Just wait until enough jobs are outsourced that the average techie (whether developing videogames or enterprise server software) is pulling down about the same as a taxi driver or Star Bucks barrista.
sheppy @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:26AM
"Also, $75k or more is nothing if you're living in the Bay Area (where most game developers are head quartered). Your power is double the cost in other cities. Apartment rent is a good thousand bucks for a one bedroom. General cost of living is at least 150% that of anywhere else. Plus you have 9.3% state tax *AND* something like 9% sales tax."
That's why I said what I said. I may ONLY be making $35K a year, but my rent is under $300. Houses in my area, 3 bedroom and two baths, to be built, are around $120,000. In other areas, it's more than tripple that.
snarge @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:29AM
@MagWheels
How companies set up their "roles" and who fills them varies from company to company, especially with a designer position. A designer at one company might actually be the head of that company. This guy might come up with ideas and do some documentation on those ideas. At a different company, the designer might just be a member of a design team, handling balancing specific systems and working with toolsets (made by the programmers) to create content for the game. One thing that doesn't vary though are qualifications. To be a programmer in the game industry, you have to be highly skilled, above and beyond most regular programmers, and above your peers in the game industry. To be a designer...well, who knows really? I've heard everything from a master's in psychology to a QA guy that worked his way up. So basically qualified programmers are a lot more rare then designers and thus, paid more. That's just my best guess though.
anonymous @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:38AM
"Houses in my area, 3 bedroom and two baths, to be built, are around $120,000. In other areas, it's more than tripple that."
I presume you mean in other areas where you live. In most places on the west coast, $120k wouldn't buy you a one bedroom shack in the bad part of town. And in the bay area, I've seen hundred year old 800sq ft rundown houses with no yard at all in unremarkable neighborhoods selling for close to a million dollars. Of course the other option is to live elsewhere and not find employment. :)
DarkCylon @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:58AM
"In most places on the west coast, $120k wouldn't buy you a one bedroom shack in the bad part of town"
In San Diego, you can't even get a shack for 120K. You'll be lucky to get the bathroom in a shack.
Last year, one of the poorer sections here had houses at around $400,000 (Logan Heights, used to live there in the 80's as a kid, promised myself I would never go back).
And man, the game programmer salaries are ridiculously low. How man billions does the game industry generate per year?
Cee @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:05PM
@sheppy
Homes for $120k?! Where do you live? and are do you know if they are looking for anyone who designs cars in your area?
Bluebreaker @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:02PM
They should sell that picture as a poster or T-Shirt.
On topic: Don't regular software dev people get paid more for the same work?
Legal is as usual almost the highest paid.
LongshotX @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:20PM
I'm so glad I live in Florida....
sheppy @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:25PM
Sorry Cee, I live in Champaign Urbana and while Flex-N-Gate is here, they don't really design cars. HOWEVER, learn some 3D for realtime assets. Volition is always hiring for vehicle artists and never hurts to try. I do have to warn you though, you have to travel about three hours (St. Louis or Chicago) to do the really really fun stuff like hitting clubs or seeing concerts but there's still some interesting local stuff. Mainly fed because of the huge student population.
Justin McElroy @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:28PM
Bluebreaker, that's a great idea. Wait, would I owe MS Paint royalties?
jonny quest @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:28PM
@ Bluebreaker
"Don't regular software dev people get paid more for the same work?"
Yes indeed. I would love if game dev paid as much as application development. It's boring, but I do QA and am currently making over 80K with rocking bennies.
LordPaul @ Apr 2nd 2007 1:31PM
Blimey!
In the UK pay & cost of living is completely screwed.
I'm on about £24k (about $47k) less tax & NI (about £1450 a month take-home) doing my IT Analyst job at a water company.
My rent is around £500 a month, bills are around £300 & my car costs around £80 a month - doesn't leave me with much for food & booze, let alone luxuries.
If I wanted to buy a house, the cheapest one in a decent area would set me back in the region of £120k ($250k)
When I was working in the games industry (working for Criterion/EA) as IT Admin I was on even less & paying out more.
LordPaul @ Apr 2nd 2007 1:34PM
Actually, I just remembered one of the lads from our old office (which no longer exists) moved to LA & took a massive payrise.
I know of people who moved from Rare in the UK to Seattle & got a pretty good deal too (as do most people I have known who moved to Redmond campus)
Genius @ Apr 2nd 2007 2:12PM
Thats kind of funny, as a game 3d artist myself, Im making exactly the game industry average. Industry average, not artist average.
josh @ Apr 2nd 2007 2:30PM
the averages seem about right... (i would think designers average should be closer to programmers) although for the most part, salaries are going up for people.
i'd say the reason the _average_ is going down is because our industry is absolutely flooded with 'new' artists - students/grads/interns, that obviously get paid a lot less than someone thats been doing this for awhile. as companies fill up with more of these fresh outta school employees, the average obviously drops.
all of that, and of course the outsourcing is taking its toll.
still, nothing to worry about for those in the biz, as long as you know what you're doing.
Vidikron @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:29PM
How typical... all the lawyers and suits make more than the people that actually make the games. Such is life in the corporate world.
MrTroy @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:38PM
If only that money would be sent over to the east coast or the south where the people can actually get the work done for a lot less. That'd mean that lower overhead wouldn't it?
I'm curious why a majority of the developers would want to be on the west coast, the time of (It's closer to Japan) can't really be a pro anymore.
Kunikos @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:51PM
I really hope they understand that $70K per year is NOT a starting salary in any way shape or form.
sheppy @ Apr 2nd 2007 5:48PM
"I'm curious why a majority of the developers would want to be on the west coast, the time of (It's closer to Japan) can't really be a pro anymore."
Best schools for tech are on the west coast to recruiting directly is a convenience. And more and more developers are leaving those regions actually.
I just yearn for the day I can read a gaming mag featuring a volition game and not have it start out as "we traveled to the middle of nowhere/cornfield." This area isn't all that bad, gets a nice little film festival yearly from Roger Ebert, and even gets a fair share of concerts. We're not the middle of nowhere, we are a major university town.
/rant
Kunikos @ Apr 2nd 2007 6:33PM
"I'm curious why a majority of the developers would want to be on the west coast, the time of (It's closer to Japan) can't really be a pro anymore."
1) Hollywood, LucasArts, EA, MS -- all west coast
Easier to get talent from those places!
2) Abundance of tech workers that used to be in SF/SJ
3) Great weather
These days though the cost of operating a business in California is driving people to other states. Taxes and cost of living are two big factors in this issue, as well as quality of life relating to air quality (pollution/smog), commuting (freeway traffic or bad public transit systems), etc.
luther2001 @ Apr 12th 2007 10:52AM
I work as a senior graphics programmer at a games developer in the south east of England. As such, I'm earning just a little less then the American average stated above.
It's the biggest wage I've ever earned and back home in Wales, on this salary, my family and I would be able to afford a really nice house and would have very few, if any, financial worries. However, house prices in the south east have sky-rocketed to such an extent that all we can afford in the town where I work is a tiny 1.5 bedroom box-joke of a house -and even that would mortgage us up to the hilt.
We live fairly frugally and I don't drive (preferring to cycle for health, economic and environmental reasons) and still can't afford a decent roof over our heads.
It annoys me that although I work in one of the few industries left in Britain that actually makes something competitive on the global stage, I find even providing the basics for my family difficult.