Quote:Original post by Undeadlnsanity
In my opinion this is most certainly not true... atleast not in the UK. Why would someone be paid less for more work, it just doesn't make sense? You're right (in my opinion) that game development is more fun than generic software development.

Disclaimer: this is my opinion.

Our starting salary at my employer is roughly $5,000.00 under the maximum I was quoted as being able to earn within the games industry. The game industry burns developers out; there are few long term entities. Your salaries are determined by the starting salary of the beginning programmer. Management apparently believes that two neophyte programmers outweigh one expert programmer and pay in a manner that supports that belief.

I'm an application developer, a Lead Developer, actually. We work forty to fifty hour weeks, but it's not required. We develop the intranet for my employer, the extranet, the public website, handle integration with other entities via web services or automated data transfer, handle the creation and maintenance of the primary applications and databases that drive our company. I've been there for seven years now and make very good money. (I own a nice house in a nice suburb and two cars, have a dog, a cat, two 55 gallon aquariums of turtles and fish, a wife, and two children. I'm the sole provider for my family, and we do well.)

One of the problems with game development is that you must live in the area that it takes place. The cost of living in these areas is extremely high compared to the rest of the country - 200% to 300% higher. I know folks in San Diego or San Francisco who pay more for a 1 bedroom apartment than I do for my house, tax escrow and all. Couple this with the recent EA debacle where "The Man" rides the developers, artists, and other entities involved in a game until they drop out of the industry and well... what do you think? EA goes out and hires fifty new programmers that are fresh to the industry and ten to twenty disgruntled programmers make their way into the applications field.

Games have held steady at $50.00 a pop here in the US for quite some time, both PC and console based. The last price raise I remember was from $39.99 to $49.99 and frankly, I can't remember when that was. Sure, the number of units being sold has increased as gaming has become more popular but considering what the budgets of most games have done (doubled, tripled, quintupled) you'd expect the price of a game to rise more than it has. Especially taking into account the remarkable number of used game sales that most game retailers are doing now. (There's an idea - kill the industry that provides the product you sell. Go GameStop!)

As well, the number of successes in the games industry is abysmal. I attribute this to managers and product approvers being stuck in "clone mode" the same way that Hollywood is stuck in "horror movie" mode. Rather than try a new, refreshing game that puts a neat spin on a topic they want another Doom, another Quake, another Command & Conquer - and they aren't willing to go out on a limb. Unfortunately the market can only bear so many clones before people simply aren't interested any more.

Or, in many cases, the game is released before it's finished. (This is usually the publisher's fault rather than the developer's, but it is the publisher generally writing the checks.)

Or, the game sucks. Period.

So yea. The money sucks. Partially because your involvement in the product may or may not have an impact on its success. When working as an application developer you have an impact on the success of the product you're working on in almost every scenario. Your good or bad work will determine if the product will be used by the company and if it will save them or cost them money. Your salary is comparable to intracompany data allowing management to see the benefit(s), if any, you bring to the table.

To be blunt: you're more useful and more valuable to a company in the application role than a games company. There are plenty of replacements available for the game developer role.

Quote:
by comparing an expert game programmer to an expert in kernel drivers you will probobly find out that they hold the same amount of salary.

No, no you won't. An expert at driver development will easily out-earn their application development peers and often their managers, never mind game developers in the same region.