The picture seems to be different here in Sweden. It's possibly related to the difference in wages being less extreme overall. The best salary I ever had was a

The picture seems to be different here in Sweden. It's possibly related to the difference in wages being less extreme overall. The best salary I ever had was as a software engineer at a AAA studio, and I used to work outside the game industry and had offers from a consulting firm which I know offer competitive salaries. I did end up leaving for a smaller studio who couldn't offer quite the same level of compensation, but the difference is still less than 20%. I've thought about it a lot and even if the pay difference was much bigger I couldn't imagine leaving the game industry. Being surrounded by people who love games, getting to spend my days on serious technical challenges in the service of making something which brings joy to millions. It is an amazing feeling. I make enough that money isn't something I need to worry about and I love what I do in a deep and intense way. No regular frontend/web/dev ops/ whatever development job will ever be able to compete with that.