General Discussion

Game Developer Magazine has published the results of their seventh annual Game Developer Survey and have found the the average American game industry salary is $73,600.

Game Developer Research is pleased to announce the debut of its sixth report, the 'Game Developer Salary Report: 2004-2008.' The in-depth 71-page report supplements the 2007 Salary Survey included in the April 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine and includes a full salary, benefits, and bonuses comparison for American, Canadian, and European game industry salaries over that time period.

More info here.

My dentist makes more money than the average game dev?  Considering how much crap we sometimes give the devs, I would of thought they made more.  Still not chump change, but not exactly Bill Gates income either.

Surely not as high as I had thought either, however I'm sure this contains the salary from a lot of entry level positions.

$70,000 is not something to scoff at, thats 3 TIMES the average wage. Offering a very comfortable life style.

That's a little less then 3x and a little more then 2x what I made at 2/3 companies I worked for.  The 3rd company was a Contract job so it wasn't salary.

...That's more then I make at MY OWN game company...

Who'd the Survey?  Obviously not the average artist who strives for 30k yearly in Atlanta.  I've met artists who get less then 20k/y.  I knew no programmers at any of the 3 companies (except one) that got paid that much at any of the 3 companies.

Quick check with my buddy and he says nobody at his studio in WI makes that much either.

I'll have to read deeper to figure out where they got this from... maybe that's the average salary for a owner for a game company and I'm boning myself. :-P

Originally posted by DrowNoble

My dentist makes more money than the average game dev?  Considering how much crap we sometimes give the devs, I would of thought they made more.  Still not chump change, but not exactly Bill Gates income either.

Heh...Game Devs most likely don't have to purchase lawsuit insurance.   Granted... Game Devs maybe pay more for fire insurance to ward off all the flamers. 

Originally posted by godpuppet

$70,000 is not something to scoff at, thats 3 TIMES the average wage. Offering a very comfortable life style.

" The national average wage index for 2006 is 38,651.41"

www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/AWI.html

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

That's a little less then 3x and a little more then 2x what I made at 2/3 companies I worked for.  The 3rd company was a Contract job so it wasn't salary.

...That's more then I make at MY OWN game company...

Who'd the Survey?  Obviously not the average artist who strives for 30k yearly in Atlanta.  I've met artists who get less then 20k/y.  I knew no programmers at any of the 3 companies (except one) that got paid that much at any of the 3 companies.

Quick check with my buddy and he says nobody at his studio in WI makes that much either.

I'll have to read deeper to figure out where they got this from... maybe that's the average salary for a owner for a game company and I'm boning myself. :-P

The data is in the latest issue of Game Developer magazine, so be sure to check it out.

The data comes from surveys from GDC attendees, Game Developer MAgazine subscribers, and people who read Gamasutra onine.  The $73K figure is an average; you do have a lot of junior artists and programmers making $30K, but you also have a lot of senior programmers and executives making $90K+.  The break out averages for each occupation; you can find some more data here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18212

You should probably keep in mind that GA and WI are fairly cheap places to live, and salaries in all industries are correspondinhly lower in such places.  The majority of game development is located in urban areas, with a large concentration on the west coast, where cost of living is much higher.  You would have a hard time even living in the bay area of California on $20K.

Bruce

Junior or senior devs, they are making shit for money considering the time, personal sacrifice and sweat they put into their games. I make well over that and no way do I invest as much of myself into my work as they do.