Game Developer Research, the analysis arm of leading video game industry publications Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra, has released the results of its ninth annual Game Developer Salary Survey, calculating an average American mainstream video game industry salary in 2009 of $75,573, a decline of more than 4% from 2008’s figure of $79,000.

The Game Developer Salary Survey is the only major publicly-released analysis of salaries in the worldwide video game industry, providing an exhaustive breakdown of salaries and benefits at major game studios by discipline, job function, experience level, region and gender.

[…]

Highlights of specific findings per category for the survey, which are available in further detail in the newly published April 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine, are as follows:

• Programming: Programmers are the highest paid talent in the mainstream game industry next to high-end businesspeople, with an average annual salary of $80,320. Experience pays in this technical role, particularly when jobs are more rare–programmers with more than six years of experience earned an incredible 36% more than the average annual salary in 2009.
• Art & Animation: Unlike those in most disciplines, artists saw a slight average salary increase this year to $71,071, up a modest 2% as more artists reported pay increases than those in any other creative field.
• Game Design: Like artists, game designers saw a modest salary bump on average, up 3% to $69,266. The design discipline also includes writers, who make an average of $61,786, a figure right in line with the average design salary of $61,859, once design leads and creative directors are not taken into account.
• Production: Of all the non-business game development disciplines, production – with a salary average overall of $75,082 – is the most welcoming to women, with 18% of the workforce made up of females, down slightly from last year but still nearly twice the industry average. Producers also tend to be the most experienced game developers, with 49% having accrued six or more years in the industry–higher than any other field.
• Quality Assurance: By contrast, testers tend to have the fewest years of experience, with nearly half having been in the industry less than three years. They are also the lowest-paid professionals, averaging $37,905–although for QA employees who do stick around for more than six years, that average salary more than doubles.
• Audio: Sound designers and composers, who earned an average of $82,085, are generally some of the most experienced professionals in the industry. But it seems audio may be opening up for new blood: this year, the number of audio developers with fewer than three years of experience rose to a high of 38%, and those with more than six years dropped significantly to 33%.
• Business & Marketing: The business field as a whole remains the highest compensated group in game development with an average salary of $96,408, even after a nearly 6% decline, and businesspeople are the most likely to receive additional compensation. Still, there is great variance within the field: marketing and PR employees average $83,804, while executives average $129,167. […]
•  

Read the full article on Gamasutra…

The editors of Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra invite readers to participate in the annual Game Developer Salary Survey, the only statistical study of game industry salaries and benefits across the years. The information provided will help inform the entire game development community.

Now, for the first time, the survey also includes indie and contract developers, no longer only reporting statistics for full-time employees of established companies. In separate data sets, we’ll present the earnings of independent developers, alongside other related statistics.

Meanwhile, the survey will retain its year-on-year comparison of salaries, benefits, and home-owning statistics across North America and Europe.
The survey takes approximately 7 minutes to complete, and will run until Friday, February 19th. The results will be published in the April 2010 issue of Game Developer magazine, and further expanded in a forthcoming Game Developer Research report.

[…]

Once again, MCV has surveyed its fellow video game professionals about their annual salaries in order to come up with an average wage for each facet of the industry in 2010. The median average for all European and U.S. respondents is £31,509 (call it $51,331 and change), while the mean is £40,467 (roughly $65,925) — that’s a fraction of a percent lower than last year’s results. For a full breakdown of how much each individual profession will average this year in salary, check out the list after the jump. […]

Average Salary by Profession (2010)
Publishing & Marketing – £44,643 / $72,728* (2009: £43,000 / $70,051)
Retail – £27,738 / $45,188 (2009: £26,960 / $43,921)
Services & Distribution – £32,250 (2009: £31,973)
Development – £31,964 / $52,073 (2009: £30,442 / $49,593)
Media – £18,056 / $29,415 (2009: £18,125 / $29,527)
PR & Communications – £28,928 / $47,127 (2009: £26,153 / $42,606)

[…]

Read more details on MCV…

How does your salary compare?

Electronic Arts did, in fact, verify that it received a correspondence from competitors in Montreal similar to the one obtained by Gamasutra. But the company declined to provide any further details, neither to show us the correspondence nor to confirm the company or individual that sent it.

When approached by Gamasutra for comment on this story, EA Montreal vice president and general manager Alain Tascan called the letters “troubling.”

“Colluding with competitors to restrict salaries in Montreal appears unethical and definitely contradicts EA’s core values,” Tascan said. “EA is currently reviewing records to affirm our understanding that no representatives from our company participated in the meetings referenced in these letters, and that no one from EA colluded with competitors to restrict employee salaries.”

Source

Subscribe:
RSS Email Twitter

Just a rumor so far, so take this with a grain of salt.

A former mid-level manager (of whom we do not previously know) has got in touch with us to potentially expose what is a very disturbing alleged occurrence in the games industry. On the condition of anonymity, he has revealed attempts of Montreal gaming studios to fix salaries of employees and rampant spying by Ubisoft Montreal on all emails to and from its competitors. The source (he was responsible for setting up the e-mail spying) forwarded us along an email between former director of HR at Eidos Montreal (Tremblay) to the Vice President of HR at Ubisoft Montreal (Baillet). In the email, Eidos note there is no benefit of raising salaries and hope the two companies do not so for competitive reasons and EA must be convinced to do the same.

What is your opinion on this? Have you been affected by this?

Update: In-Depth: Montreal Game Biz Sees Salary-Fixing Collusion?

Source

Subscribe:
RSS Email Twitter