WeebMac writes "IGN has a new career-themed section and one of their first stories is about the earning potential available to those who make their careers in the gaming industry. From TFA, 'Beginning programmers, whether you're working on tools, gameplay, networking, audio, AI, or animation, you can expect to start off with a salary in the area of $60K with the potential for more in the way of sales-based royalties or bonuses or stock options depending on the particular company you've been hired by." IGN Talks Games Industry Salaries Log in/Create an Account | Top | 315 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 315 comments 0: 311 comments 1: 238 comments 2: 163 comments 3: 44 comments 4: 27 comments 5: 15 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. And that $60k goes a long way... (Score:5, Insightful) by realmolo (574068) on Thursday October 20, @02:14PM (#13837863) Because since you'll be working 80 hour weeks, you won't have time to spend it! As for stock options and royalties...yeah right. Carrot, meet stick. Seriously, IGN is clueless. [ Reply to ThisRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:24PM Re:And that $60k goes a long way... (Score:4, Interesting) by iocat (572367) on Thursday October 20, @03:52PM (#13838734) (http://home.comcast.net/~iocat | Last Journal: Tuesday August 10, @04:52PM) Testing usually is a way into production, not programming (not that that doesn't ever happen, of course). Generally speaking, this article is not that accurate, as are most "salary surverys," where people typically respond with what they *should* be making, not what they do make. Also, he didn't note how long it takes (years -- your whole career, if you're *successful*) to get from the starting salary to the final salary. Nor did he note the salary disparity between developers and publishers. People who work at independent developers typically make less, but have more freedom and input into what they do, versus being "animator 957" or whatever, so it's a tradeoff.Also, I didn't like the outmoded description of "marketing stiffs" or the cheap shot about producers: "...someone who's merely making schedules, managing the talent, and dealing with the annoying marketing stiffs." Yeah, that sounds easy, huh? Maybe he should try it! Obviously I came from the production side, and I would have liked to see some description of the differences in jobs between different types of producers, but I guess it was just a quick overall survery and not an in-depth thing. Anyway, IMHO the reality of making games today is a far cry from the shots he takes in the article. If there is an "us versus them" relationship between marketing and development -- or between any develoment disciple (art and engineering, design and production, production and art, etc), your game's sales, sequel potential, and eventually your career are going to suffer. Good teams work together and while there's always friction, it's the job of the discipline leads -- and that worthless producer -- to minimize it. That's not to say there aren't bad marketing people, or irritating artists, or incompetent producers, all of whom suck and make everyone's life difficult, but there shouldn't be this default adversarial relationship there. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by badasscat (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @04:36PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Drawkcab (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:11PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Antonymous Flower (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:31PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Spy der Mann (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:40PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @02:55PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by KDR_11k (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:35PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Or are they? (Score:5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20, @02:58PM (#13838273) Granted that most of the information presented in the article is either false or hyped beyond exaggeration, IGN is not entirely clueless. Their motive here is not to write a fact-filled article, presenting unbiased information to a crowd of prospective game developers.What is it, then? To make money. Consider two things:-This article is geared toward adolescents, and continues the marginal trend within America of promoting questionable possibilities because, survey says: kids like to dream.-Checking just above the article, one will notice the banner indicating "Sponsored by Full Sail" in so many words. What is Full Sail, you ask? An imitation private college designed to produced talentless chum at the measly expense of $30k. Per year.IGN is no more clueless than they are poor, but they definitely hope to take advantage of the fact that their userbase is indeed clueless. But what more should we expect from America's biased, profiteering media? [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Or are they? by Dogtanian (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:51PMIt's much simpler than that. by Trojan35 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @07:41PMRe:Or are they? by pipingguy (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:55PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Re:And that $60k goes a long way... by I judge you (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:16PM Re:And that $60k goes a long way... (Score:4, Interesting) by Sneftel (15416) on Thursday October 20, @04:09PM (#13838861) Obvious: If you're a new college grad willing to work 100 hours a week for mediocre benefits, there are companies willing to take you up on your offer.Not so obvious: If you're a new college grad and are NOT willing to work 100 hours a week for mediocre benefits, there are still companies willing to take you up on your offer. You just need to be good at what you do, and willing to ask for what you want.Seriously. If there's one group that truly, truly SUCKS at contract negotiations, it's geeks. There's enough money in the industry to pay competent people a good wage, but if you cream your pants at the very thought of EA sticking you in a mildewy basement for $20 a week, that's what you're gonna get. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by poot_rootbeer (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:59PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Nept (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @05:48PMA little more authoritative by cgenman (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:35PMRe:And that $60k goes a long way... by Duncan3 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:18PM3 replies beneath your current threshold. What I'd REALLY like to know (Score:5, Insightful) by halivar (535827) <bfelgerNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday October 20, @02:14PM (#13837869) (http://bfelger.net/) What's the dollar-to-hour ratio? If you're making $100K and spending 100 hours a week to make it, it's not worth it. [ Reply to This Re:What I'd REALLY like to know (Score:5, Informative) by RailGunner (554645) * <Rail_Gunner&hotmail,com> on Thursday October 20, @02:26PM (#13837996) (Last Journal: Thursday October 20, @11:05AM) Assuming 80 hour work weeks, working 50 weeks out of the year, 60K works out to:$15 bucks an hour.Assuming you work 80 hours a week, and you get time-and-a-half overtime, you only need to make $12 an hour. If you're competent, you can make more than $12 an hour managing a Burger King.For further comparison: Most contractors are able to bill for over $40 an hour, in many cases more than this.Bottom line is this: If you're working mandatory overtime, there's a line where it'd be better to go sling burgers. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by baboon (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:55PM Re:What I'd REALLY like to know (Score:4, Informative) by SatanicPuppy (611928) <SatanicpuppyNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday October 20, @03:19PM (#13838473) (Last Journal: Thursday September 02, @11:32PM) People throw out the contractor figure a lot. Hell I've billed 150+ an hour for certain types of programming and database work.That is NOT the same as making $150 an hour, working a full time job. Not even remotely close. You're lucky if you can pull ten hours a week at those rates, assuming you lack big industry contracts, and it's unlikely you'd be able to do THAT two weeks in a row.And then there is all the work you have to do, but can't get paid for. Marketing, billing, accounting, keeping your own equipment and skills up. Travel time...Sometimes you can bill for it, sometimes you can't. If you can't, then you're talking an hour or so wasted in transit. Nothing worse than having to drive in, and finding out the problem is a user error that takes 5 minutes to fix...Even if you normally bill at a hour minimum, if you charge someone $180 bucks for typing one command, they'll never call you again...I always charged a 40 dollar call fee, but that's not worth the damn time it takes to get there and back.Freelance is nice, if the work comes in by itself. If it doesn't, it can be hell. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by GooberToo (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:49PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:What I'd REALLY like to know by adam31 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:19PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by RailGunner (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @03:30PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by AuMatar (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:31PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by chris_eineke (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:01PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by RailGunner (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:12PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by LurkerXXX (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:33PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by ecklesweb (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:08PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by GooberToo (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:45PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by AndyG314 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @05:51PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by nwbvt (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @11:57PM2 replies beneath your current threshold.Not Worth It to You Maybe by OctoberSky (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:27PMRe:What I'd REALLY like to know by KDR_11k (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @06:13PM kids! (Score:5, Insightful) by rovingeyes (575063) on Thursday October 20, @02:15PM (#13837880) "If you were to grab any random teenager from one of the midnight launch lines for the latest Halo, Grand Theft Auto or Madden release and were to ask them how much it'd take to pay them to make games, there's a good chance that you'd find more than a few who would tell you that it's their dream to get into development and that they'd do it for free. "Call it a flame, but am I the only one seeing the stupidity in that paragraph. They are KIDS for crying out loud! Let us see if they still are willing to work for free when...umm... they graduate or have a family. This author is a moron! [ Reply to This Re:kids! (Score:5, Funny) by NotMyNickName (922171) on Thursday October 20, @02:18PM (#13837914) This author is a moron! Only the best from IGN. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:kids! by mcb (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:19PM Re:kids! (Score:4, Insightful) by Fulcrum of Evil (560260) on Thursday October 20, @04:42PM (#13839218) A random teenager has no idea what is involved in making games. A random teenager has no idea what is involved in supporting himself. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:kids! by Rycross (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:09PMRe:75% fresh meat? by OverflowingBitBucket (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:24PMRe:kids! by Abedneg0 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:30PMRe:kids! by Rycross (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:57PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:kids! by vertinox (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @02:50PMRe:kids! by hazah (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:42PMRe:kids! by vertinox (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:33PMRe:kids! by jaydonnell (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:44PMRe:kids! by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:22PMRe:kids! by h3llfish (Score:1) Friday October 21, @12:32AM3 replies beneath your current threshold. Honest question (Score:2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20, @02:16PM (#13837888) If you salary area is $60K, is your salary 244.95? [ Reply to ThisRe:Honest question by Soporific (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:19PMRe:Honest question by klack (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:48PMRe:Honest question by orasio (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:06PM Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site (Score:5, Insightful) by Radres (776901) on Thursday October 20, @02:17PM (#13837897) ...and make $600 million [theinquirer.net]. I always hated IGN and their half-hearted attempt to make a games site for each and every game that comes out. Nothing could compare to a site made by a dedicated fan, such as Shlonglor's Warcraft 2 page [winnieinternet.com], which was built before this gamespy/ign/daily radar/plan revolution. [ Reply to ThisRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by acvh (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:25PMRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by Reapy (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @02:45PMRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by rascal1182 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:20PMRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by nEoN nOoDlE (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:31PMRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by Buzz_Litebeer (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:43PMRe:Or you can make a crappy half-assed games site by timeOday (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:41PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? (Score:4, Interesting) by mpapet (761907) <mpapet@ y a h o o.com> on Thursday October 20, @02:17PM (#13837906) (http://www.michaelpapet.com/) I tend to think the numbers are lying one way or another.Either it's an EA kind of environment where 60,000K may be cheap for such devotion, or gaming is in the equivalent of the tech bubble.Un-related but funny story. I have some aquiantances (sp?) here in L.A. that write scripts and they actually get evaluated (paid too) by people who can get movies made. The latest overwhelming reply to their work has been, "It's a great script, but we're really looking for something based on a video game.."True story. [ Reply to ThisRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by ucblockhead (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:24PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by Karl Cocknozzle (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:27PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by mpapet (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:30PM Re:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? (Score:5, Funny) by rlp (11898) on Thursday October 20, @02:35PM (#13838080) It's a great script, but we're really looking for something based on a video gameIT CAME FROM THE SKY!! THE MILITARY COULDN'T STOP IT. ONLY ONE LONE ECCENTRIC GENIUS KNEW WHAT TO DO!! IT'S TETRIS - THE MOVIEThat'll be one million dollars and ten percent of the gross please. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by Omega697 (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @03:06PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by IANAAC (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:11PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by Crunchie Frog (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @11:00PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by SpecBear (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:05PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by vsprintf (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:19PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by HAKdragon (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @08:36PMRe:Obligatory penny arcade comic by rlp (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:59PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Maybe they are harder to find by juancn (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:10PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by Riktov (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:11PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by mooingyak (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:15PMRe:Today 60,000 Tomorrow??? by Castar (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:46PM Into Perspective (Score:3, Interesting) by pat_trick (218868) on Thursday October 20, @02:18PM (#13837907) (http://pat-trick.livejournal.com/) Nevermind that the "beginning" programmer has likely already worked on many other games, has a solid background in programming of various languages / APIs, and is able to produce solid quality code.Sounds like they're souping up "beginning" as "I know how to write a cout in C++!". [ Reply to ThisRe:Right, right! by mister_llah (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:25PMI hope so by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @02:33PMRe:I hope so by AuMatar (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:39PMRe:I hope so by jedidiah (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:59PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:Into Perspective by JPriest (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:33PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Gaming industry is insane.. (Score:5, Informative) by xtal (49134) on Thursday October 20, @02:19PM (#13837920) (http://www.nyx.net/~smanley) Nevermind what it will do if you want to have a family life. Done that once, now I'm a freelance contractor and working on my own business ventures. If you go into the games industry looking to get rich as a programmer, you are insane. This is an industry where the peasants (programmers, engineers) REVOLTED. I can't think of another example.http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=ea+lawsuit&btn G=Google+Search&meta= [google.ca]Think about that.If you're doing it for the love of the art, do it for a hobby. Otherwise, I admire your guts.Free advice for those of you with mad opengl skills and a mathematics background - double score if you have a mathematics or engineering degree.- Go read a book on "Data Visualization"- Go read a book on "Geographic Information Systems"- Go read a book on "Signal Processing" (FFT, etc)- Brush up on data structures relevant to the above.Fire some resumes around to oil companies, insurance firms, financial trading companies, mining companies, etc etc loaded up with buzzwords. Make your programming skills secondary to the buzzwords.Profit. My $0.02. I paid for my univesity degree writing 3D GIS systems software in OpenGL - had I have tried to do so writing games, I would probably be living on the street. [ Reply to ThisRe:Gaming industry is insane.. by jinzumkei (Score:3) Thursday October 20, @02:30PMRe:Gaming industry is insane.. by xtal (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:33PMRe:Gaming industry is insane.. by jinzumkei (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:36PMRe:Gaming industry is insane.. by autophile (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:24PMBeginning OSS game designers can expect $0 a year by elrous0 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @04:39PM Re:Gaming industry is insane.. (Score:4, Insightful) by justins (80659) on Thursday October 20, @04:49PM (#13839276) (http://www.yahoo.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday May 22, @11:57AM) . This is an industry where the peasants (programmers, engineers) REVOLTED. I can't think of another example.Not a student of the labor movement and its history, eh? [ Reply to This | Parent1 reply beneath your current threshold. In Finland... (Score:1) by metalmario (717434) on Thursday October 20, @02:20PM (#13837928) You can expect to get something around 30000e/year, if you are programming games for mobile phones. And pay ~24% taxes. And everything is more expensive in here than in the States. [ Reply to ThisIn Soviet Russia... by RingDev (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:51PMRe:In Finland... by metalmario (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:44PMRe:In Finland... by Ced_Ex (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:50PMRe:In Finland... by Krach42 (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:38PM3 replies beneath your current threshold. Waste of time. (Score:2, Funny) by MetalliQaZ (539913) on Thursday October 20, @02:20PM (#13837932) You're more likely to be a pro athelete than to be a game dev. Unless your diet centers around cheetos and mountain dew. In that case you have no chance at either.-d [ Reply to ThisRe:Waste of time. by Duhavid (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:49PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. I stopped reading at... (Score:5, Insightful) by nharmon (97591) on Thursday October 20, @02:21PM (#13837940) as it's the engineers at the various game companies that are driving the Ferrari's, Mercedes SL500's, and Lamborghini's.First of all. How many engineers are game companies are driving top-end sports cars? And second of all, how many could afford them?I mean, making $100,000 and driving a Lambo would probably mean parking it in front of a 1 bedroom apartment... and hoping someone doesn't walk along and key it. [ Reply to ThisRe:I stopped reading at... by djwavelength (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:26PMRe:I stopped reading at... by sfontain (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:35PMRe:I stopped reading at... by lowe0 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:44PM1 reply beneath your current threshold.Re:I stopped reading at... by snarkh (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:08PMRe:I stopped reading at... by SeattleGameboy (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:22PMRe:I stopped reading at... by autophile (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:27PMRe:I stopped reading at... by poot_rootbeer (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:10PMRe:I stopped reading at... by snarkh (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @07:30PMRe:I stopped reading at... by GooberToo (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @05:15PMRe:I stopped reading at... by nharmon (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @10:18PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Pardon? (Score:4, Insightful) by MaestroSartori (146297) on Thursday October 20, @02:22PM (#13837956) (http://www.cubo.co.uk/) I don't know about the US, but I'm a gamesprogrammer in the UK with 4 years or so games experience for a mix of companies.My starting salary was £20k (somewhere around $35k-40k US I think), which is at the upper end of the starting range in this country. I've known people who worked in smaller companies in lower cost-of-living areas who started on much less.Most companies that I've known staff at do *not* offer shares, or royalties, or even bonuses. Bonuses, where offered, are by no means guaranteed - I've never had one. I've worked on a finished game for which I might've received royalties, but you don't get them til at least a year after the game is released (and the company went bust before the game was released, lovely!), and there's no guarantee that the contract with the publisher will be such that the staff ever see any royalties even if the company does.I've never worked for them, but the majority of games companies at least in the UK make GB/GBA/Mobile-phone games, not the big console titles. Even the big players (Rockstar spring to mind) don't pay out regular bonuses on time or at all.Why do I still do it? Well, now I'm working at a decent company (Sony, if you're interested), I get to make *games* god damn it, it's fun! :)If anyone has any more questions about working in games, feel free to reply :D [ Reply to ThisRe:Pardon? by FortKnox (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:27PMRe:Pardon? by MaestroSartori (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:29PM Re:Pardon? (Score:4, Informative) by brainboyz (114458) on Thursday October 20, @02:51PM (#13838212) (http://slashdot.org/) I'm calling out your bullshit! I make $50k/year as a programmer in Orange County (high cost area). I can afford a decent 1 bedroom apartment (700 sq feet), investments, 401k, health & dental insurance, my truck, 2 motorcycles (track and street), and a project car. If I cared to for some reason, I could have my girlfriend move in and only money she'd need to contribute would be anything to go out shopping with.It's not a high-end life, but it's certainly not "scraping by" nor is it in a bad area (I live 15 minutes from work). That seems to be the norm for this area.I will agree that if I were making this much in the midwest, I'd own my own home by now but that's the price of gorgeous weather, women, and scenes. [ Reply to This | ParentRe:Pardon? by bigdogs (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:31PMRe:Pardon? by cliffski (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @06:02PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Seems High (Score:4, Informative) by captainbeardo (868266) on Thursday October 20, @02:22PM (#13837957) (http://www.beardosnuts.com/) According to the diversity report from the IGDA http://www.igda.org/diversity/report.php [igda.org] the average salary is 58K, but that's with the average time in the industry at 5.6 years. So it would seem to me that the average starting salary would be less than the 60K they are quoting.Also, due to the incredible supply of people that want to work in the games industry you'd expect the average salary of a game software developer to be less. I know in the company I work for starting SW developer salary is around 55K right out of college. In any event, it seems that their numbers for SW engineers is a bit high. [ Reply to This Cool vs. $$ (Score:1) by LukePieStalker (746993) on Thursday October 20, @02:25PM (#13837983) And how many late nights and Sundays is the beginning programmer (read: "lives alone, has no life") putting in for their $60K?This is one of those jobs, like publishing or broadcasting, that benefits from the perceived cool factor. Better to get yourself a corporate database programming job, start at $15K more per year, and have weekends. [ Reply to ThisRe:Cool vs. $$ by acvh (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:31PMRe:Cool vs. $$ by Doctor Memory (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:51PMRe:Cool vs. $$ by karnal (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @04:31PMRe:Cool vs. $$ by foobari (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:46PMSo Sorry by LukePieStalker (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @02:51PMRe:Cool vs. $$ by orderb13 (Score:1) Thursday October 20, @03:29PM 60K? (Score:4, Interesting) by StandardDeviant (122674) on Thursday October 20, @02:26PM (#13838000) (http://uptime.netcra.../?host=www.goatse.cx | Last Journal: Wednesday September 11, @08:46PM) Shit, from what I've heard from friends in the industry, it's more like 30-35k.(Most them living here in TX, with a fairly average cost of living on the national scale.[at least the cities where these folks were -- austin, dallas, and houston -- are within 10% of the national average last I checked... it's surely cheaper to live in places like Crockett or Buda or Nacogdoches or whatever, but you don't find many games studios in places where the time zone is still "1952".]) [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Remember the EA guy? (Score:1) by quibbs0 (803278) on Thursday October 20, @02:28PM (#13838020) Do you all remember the story about the EA Sports programmer who was working the 70,80, and 90 hour weeks with endless promises? I don't remember the details exactly but he said he was getting paid really well but basically had to blow off the rest of his life and then they ended up screwing him in the long run. His wife filed a lawsuit and I think perhaps a class action was being spoken of by other employees that were scared to speak out.$60,000 and no time to spend it? Awesome. Atleast you can hope that some hot chick sees you in your fancy ride on your way home at 10 PM at night. [ Reply to ThisRe:Remember the EA guy? by erik umenhofer (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @02:49PMRe:Remember the EA guy? by bleckywelcky (Score:2) Thursday October 20, @03:17PM The hard part... (Score:2, Insightful) by planetoid (719535)