Video games industry in great health, unlike the rest of the US economy
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 10th 2010 7:11PM
posted August 10th 2010 7:11PM
posted August 10th 2010 7:11PM
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SC II ftw
@refink
No joke, I was just playing SCII right before reading this article.
@refink
Raynor should in that picture.
@techlord
+1 SC 2 FTW
Raynor definitely looks badass now
and the bastards want to charge for multiplayer. If it happens, I hope gamers do a better job voting with their wallets than they did with the overpriced MW2 map packs or it will become the norm.
@sacguy
seriously. fuck my my future, all i do is play SC 2...
@sacguy Blizzard wants to charge for playing the multiplayer? That doesn't sound too "trustworthy". Do you have any sources where they mention this?
@techlord That isn't Raynor...
@sacguy
Activision wants to charge, not Blizzard. They're part of the same company, but they act separately.
btw, Vivendi/Blizzard holds a 52% stake in the company.
@sacguy Get your facts straight... They have it where some map makers can have it so they can sell maps. And some maps blizzard will make some maps buyable. Thanks.
@refink so, basically, Americans aren't producing anymore. They are just playing video games.
@refink Now if they could only get rid of the MW2 glitcher's
@refink
I can't help but feel that it is also due in part to Steam branching out to the Macs as well, Counter Strike, Half Life, etc.
@refink
wow brings back memories
i played this as a kid
engadget thank for you choosing that picture
@manofchao5
You played SC2 as a kid? Wow, you grew up fast.
@Explodedeath
I believe he meant to say, "they should put Raynor in that picture".
They forgot to mention 10-20% are game tester which are paid minimum wage work long hour, but get lay off after game is release.
@techlord I dunno about you, but getting paid anything to sit around and play the latest games all day sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me!
@techlord
There are always low hanging fruit in every industry. If you suck then that's your place
@techlord
Not all game testers are paid minimum wage. Some are paid $12-$16 per hour at Publishers and much more at Developers depending on how long you've been working and how good you are.
I used to be a game tester. Long hours, yes. Of course, times have changed and the industry has gotten worse towards them, which is why I quit a few years back. Upper management do treat them like they are less than employees even though many have college educations.
And yes, they are switching to temping ... which means quality goes down. Eventually, they'll move the testing out of the country and then the quality will go down even further ... but as long as the suits get richer ... that's what's important.
@TailsK
its not
my roommate did this and tested borderlands... it gets old real quick, not like the movies.
@Meekermoloko ...had two game testers at the place I used to work, they both had Phd. level degrees. Was impressive to see where you can get in life sometimes. Oh...they were both total nerds...to the nth power.
I, for one, (DON'T!) welcome our fat-cat, bottom-line-worshiping video-game-manufacturing overlords....
I laugh whenever I hear someone saying they want to be a game designer when they grow up... they fail to realize it entails a crap load of work.
Hence the $90,000.
@The Shadow
USC offer BS and Master in video game design, and Standford offer course at Iphone Apps.
@The Shadow Then again, to those who can pull game designing off, I salute you.
@The Shadow
Anything worthwhile takes a lot of work.
@The Shadow a few co-workers here at work are ex game devs. the majority didn't love it thats for sure... some do tho i guess :)
I'm changing my major. Comp sci, here I come!
@BigJayDogg3
Degree alone won't land you a job in game designer, you must work as intern first.
@BigJayDogg3 Good luck. It's tough as nails to get into the profession, especially at entry level.
I'll have to intern anyway. I'm in management information systems.
@BigJayDogg3
Don't underestimate the change you are making. CS is not easy.
$90k AVERAGE wage. If that includes low paid testers I may have chosen the wrong industry.
It's funny that most people joke and complain about the low-wage testers getting "the shaft" in regards to compensation when the average salary is around $90K in the industry.
I have more friends that I can count with the digits on my hands in which they did QA for a company at what folks would call as "minimum wage" and less than a decade later, are making well over the $90K average now as Sr. Developers or double the average as Sr. Architects.
Folks, it's called "getting your foot in the door"...
@Kermee people don't want to work their way up. too many people have an undeserved sense of entitlement. i know quite a few people with college degrees that are unemployed simply because they refuse to start at the bottom. take what you can get people.
@kojo87
Or their college degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on. For instance, a BSc majoring in biology is great as pre-med or as a stepping stone to a Ph.D. Aside from that it's not much use. Just a college/university degree isn't enough to get you somewhere, it has to be in a useful field, from an institution that does well in that field.
What this article fails to mention is THQ posted a quarterly loss of $30.1 million, whilst the Disney game division also posted a quarterly loss of $65 million despite a 75% increase in turnover from the same period last year. Not looking so rosy now, Engadget?
@fingers Disney games for the most part suck. The only game that was actually good that Disney even had any part of was Kingdom Hearts which was mostly developed by Square. THQ always has losses, they aren't a top publisher like EA or Activision. The most important companies are Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Activision, and EA. Pointing out DIsney and THQ are down is like saying Midway is down on profits. That has been known long before this recession ever started and probably dates back to the 90s.
It is the very best game I have played in a long time
@The Geek [+]
Makes sense. With fewer people having less disposable income (or just not willing to spend what they do have, and save it instead), more people are staying home. Instead of going out to dinners or movies with friends, I guess people are just hanging out at each other's houses for cheaper entertainment.
Uhr, the average salary is **NOT** 90k. It's much less, and I'm talking about artists, designers, and programmers. I've been in and out of the industry for 15 years. It's a hell of a lot less if you're putting QA in the mix.
1) the 90k is some aggregate of "total compensation" and takes insurance & pension into account. Read the Ars Technica link.
2) the author/poster conveniently forgets to mention the average career lifespan in the games industry is a mere 5 years.
3) I find it extremely hard to believe that the industry has 120,000 jobs, unless you're factoring in even less paying jobs such as working retail. EA has less than 9k employees, and they're the #2 company. Of those 9k employees, how many of those do you think are QA?
@rockyb
The linked report says the industry directly employs about 32,000 people. The 120k number is combined direct and indirect employment. It's a *tiny* industry, and very tough to break into unless you are talented.
And the video games are now DIAMONDS! SWAN DIVE!
the rest of the economy isn't in great health because everybody's playing video games :)
Correction: CONSOLE video games industry doing well. The PC one is still dying and will continue to do so as long as consolitis plagues it...which it is now destined to forever =\
@deciBels
Of course consoles will because it's more convenient to play on and relax instead of sitting at a desk your your computer is. PC games will still thrive due to games that is not ported to a console like SC, WoW, Diablo, and other games that are popular on pc's but not on consoles or is not control friendly on a console.
@deciBels:
>PC gaming
>dying
Oh, that's right, it's been "dying" for over a decade.
@deciBels
STEAM
...that is all