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The industry directly employs over 32,000 people, which has increased at an annual rate of nearly 9%. Those individuals earn an average yearly income of $89,781, and the total compensation for all workers totaled $2.9 billion in 2009. Around 88,000 people are employed indirectly in the US.
California is home to a majority of that personnel, employing almost 53,000 people directly and indirectly. Texas trails with 13,613 workers, while Washington, New York, and Massachusetts filled out the top five states with the highest number of video game jobs. Meanwhile, Virginia and Oregon are said to have the quickest growing game markets.
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KG363 said:
That's a nice average income
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Yeh but they aren't guaranteed work for long
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thats less than 10 percent of bill gates personal wealth =P
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Yeah, $89k is a nice salary, but almost none of these people get medical/vacation benefits and as Guest pointed out - work is sporadic. If you don't get immediately assigned to a new game after one is finished, you're out on the street looking for work.
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Actually, thats typical for Software Engineering positions, and no its not unstable work. I've been in the industry since '95 and its had its ups and downs but unless you're a total ***** you probably are going to be able to hang onto a job for quite a while. The jobs are mostly team based and once a good team is formed it tends to stick together from game to game (at least for several years). As far as the cyclical nature of the work, if you are working in console or PC games you can kiss your summer and fall vacations goodbye because its all about delivering product for X-mass, phone and web are more laid back but a little less predictable. If you can get into the industry on an upswing though ( i.e. new generation of consoles or new media delivery like web or phones) then you are looking at some amazing bonuses and great payoff in stock and such, there were a few years when I saw ~50% bonuses (note there were years that there were none as well). But all in all, if you are creative, love games, constant change and crazy schedules, and work well with other people (seriously thats gotta be #1) , its definitely a great industry to get into. And yes, it can pay quite well.
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