If you're interested in making videogames but want to make sure you bring home the serious bacon, you should probably look for a job the business or marketing department, says a survey conducted by Game Developer magazine.
The average salary for someone in business and marketing is $101,848, and they also earn the most additional compensation (bonuses and whatnot). If you can't bring yourself to shill for games, programming them will earn you an average of $83,383, or you could just do the audio for $73,409.
Production brings in an average salary of $78,716 while artists and animators score an average of $66,594. The game designers themselves trail just behind with an average yearly paycheck of $63,649, while the QA team members average just $39,063.
Community managers, appearing for the first time on Game Developer's industry survey, earn an average of $50,294, which is not nearly enough when you consider that monitoring forums is part of their daily job responsibilities. The grammatical abuse alone would be enough to send one into deep, deep spirals of despair.
For more information on the salary breakdown, you can either pick up the April edition of Game Developer, or simply purchase the entire 71-page report.
Photo: Tracy O/Flickr
