Game Developer Magazine Gives One More Reason To Be a Game Maker
So much money and so little time.
Published: April 14, 2008
There's usually two reasons people get into the gaming industry: either they want to make games for a living or they want to play games for a living. Well, how about the pay?
Game Developer magazine, famous for all sorts of other polls and surveys, has released its seventh annual Game Developer Salary survey. What did we find out with this most recent salary poll? That American game developers get paid mucho bucks for the work they do, to the average tune of $73,600.
Among the actual development group, Programmers have an average salary of $83,383. They're also the highest educated group, with around 50% holding bachelors degrees and 26% holding some kind of graduate work. Artists bring in about $66,594 on average and game design positions pull in about $63,649. Writers are a bit on the low end of the spectrum, bringing in $51,731, while community managers, who were surveyed for the first time this year, brought in an average of $50,294. Production positions bring in $78,716 on average. This is good news for females, as production positions make up the bulk of the female workforce in the gaming industry.
Testers and Audio engineers were also surveyed, with the former averaging $39,063 unless they held lead Q/A positions, at which point they were paid $70,658 on average. Sound designers pull in $73,409 on average.
The highest paid, however, were business and marketing positions, with the average salary hovering at the $101,848 mark. Experienced executives can earn as much as $132,305 on average with more than six years of experience.
“Our Salary Survey continues to provide canonical information on the state of game pay,” Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer magazine, said. “We hope the data presented by Game Developer magazine will serve to both encourage aspiring developers, as well as focus the attention of increasingly important new industry positions such as community managers.”
There's never been a better time to get into the industry. If you've been toying with the idea of seeing where the journey takes you, just look at those salary numbers. That should be all the incentive you need.
Game Developer magazine, famous for all sorts of other polls and surveys, has released its seventh annual Game Developer Salary survey. What did we find out with this most recent salary poll? That American game developers get paid mucho bucks for the work they do, to the average tune of $73,600.
Among the actual development group, Programmers have an average salary of $83,383. They're also the highest educated group, with around 50% holding bachelors degrees and 26% holding some kind of graduate work. Artists bring in about $66,594 on average and game design positions pull in about $63,649. Writers are a bit on the low end of the spectrum, bringing in $51,731, while community managers, who were surveyed for the first time this year, brought in an average of $50,294. Production positions bring in $78,716 on average. This is good news for females, as production positions make up the bulk of the female workforce in the gaming industry.
Testers and Audio engineers were also surveyed, with the former averaging $39,063 unless they held lead Q/A positions, at which point they were paid $70,658 on average. Sound designers pull in $73,409 on average.
The highest paid, however, were business and marketing positions, with the average salary hovering at the $101,848 mark. Experienced executives can earn as much as $132,305 on average with more than six years of experience.
“Our Salary Survey continues to provide canonical information on the state of game pay,” Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer magazine, said. “We hope the data presented by Game Developer magazine will serve to both encourage aspiring developers, as well as focus the attention of increasingly important new industry positions such as community managers.”
There's never been a better time to get into the industry. If you've been toying with the idea of seeing where the journey takes you, just look at those salary numbers. That should be all the incentive you need.