6 ms·
A quick google search says game developers make around $100k. That's a lot more than what the bottom 99% of musicians and actors make. Let me know when there's
by aczerepinski 8y ago
A quick google search says game developers make around $100k. That's a lot more than what the bottom 99% of musicians and actors make.
Let me know when there's a star developer who's name on the front of a video game cover will guarantee a moderate number of sales no matter how bad the game is. That's when the comparison against the top 0.1% of actors will make sense.
- redblacktree 8y agoSid Meier?
- rc_hadoken 8y agoHideo Kojima...but he's never been fully involved in a bad title I have actually played.
- detritus 8y agoPeter Molyneux, or at least the Studios he headed... ...until he finally oversold his overselling, that is.
- krapp 8y ago> A quick google search says game developers make around $100k. That's a lot more than what the bottom 99% of musicians and actors make. I seriously doubt most game developers make anywhere near that.
- vvanders 8y agoYeah, no where close to that. Entry level is around 30-40k, after a 3-5 years you can be expecting 50-60k if you're lucky. There are exceptions but I saw my salary double when I left the industry and from talking with other people it seemed like a pretty common pattern. FWIW games follows the 90/10 rule(90% of revenue goes to 10% of the market) so while the 100k average may be "accurate" it doesn't paint a clear picture.
- maxerickson 8y ago30k is entry level for competent labor jobs in Timbuktu.
- aczerepinski 8y agoThese are for programmers? Yikes! I mean it's still a lot more than the zero that most musicians and actors make, but an extremely surprising amount nonetheless.
- vvanders 8y agoYup, lower for Art and even lower for Design usually. Producers/PM tend to be close to dev salaries. The real twist on this is that these aren't stable jobs either. Every studio I know had some sort of closure/downsizing around the 3-5 year mark. I know many people who had to be constantly moving between SEA/SF/Austin/etc just to keep a job across a career.
- krapp 8y agoDon't be fooled by HN and the hype of the SV bubble - the vast majority of programming work in the real world is the digital equivalent of factory assembly line labor.
- dgzl 8y ago$80k-$200k+ sounds about right to me.... What's unbelievable here?
- abc-xyz 8y agoI'd love a list of companies paying game developers $80-200k.
- albertgoeswoof 8y agoHere you go: .
- tonyhb 8y agoI'm hiring people that build game engines to do 3D graphics programming for medical applications. The salary range is much better than game programming. tony[at]uniformteeth.com.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- cheeze 8y agoAmazon Game Studios is. I know they are a joke in the gaming world, but at least they pay people what they are worth. As does Valve.
- SeanBoocock 8y agoThere are many. If you want to get a feel for the market in the US, look at recent H1B filings at major studios/publishers.
- arkem 8y agoRiot Games does, we're hiring: https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/welcome https://www.riotgames.com/en/work-with-us/welcome
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- stevenwoo 8y agoI made more than that in base compensation in 2001 in video games and I'm no rockstar. Of course if I reentered the video game industry the pay would be about the same 20 years later...
- kemiller2002 8y agoI'm going to go with John Carmack on that one. I think Oculus was a great example of that. I'm not saying they didn't have potential before he joined, but merely him moving to there caused a huge amount of press.
- pbalau 8y agoWhatever are the sale numbers for Rage Vs Battlefield or COD?
- tokyodude 8y agoit doesn't matter that they are paid well. what matters is that aren't sharing in the spoils. if the industry is doing so well salaries and bonuses should be higher. as an example Sony has 10-15 divisions. TVs, batteries, Lcd screens, cameras, etc. For the last 10 to 15 yrs all of them have lost money except the game division but the game division has the lowest salaries.