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Making Video Games Is Not a Dream Job (nytimes.com)
The video game industry is richer than it has ever been. Its revenue in 2018 was $43.8 billion, a recent report estimated, thanks in large part to hugely popular games like Fortnite and Call of Duty. These record-breaking profits could have led one to think that the people who develop video games had it made. But then the blood bath began. From a story, shared by an anonymous reader: In February, Call of Duty's publisher, Activision Blizzard, laid off 8 percent of its staff, or nearly 800 workers, in a cost-cutting massacre. A few weeks later, the game studio ArenaNet cut dozens of positions, while smaller layoffs hit companies like Valve and the digital store operator GOG. And just last week, the video game giant Electronic Arts announced that it was laying off 350 people across the globe.
This brutal start to 2019 followed the closures of major game companies like Telltale, the makers of games based on The Walking Dead, and Capcom Vancouver, the large studio behind the popular action series Dead Rising in 2018. All in all, thousands of video game workers have lost their jobs in the past 12 months. In many of these cases, laid-off employees had no idea what was coming. One developer at a major studio told me in February that he and his colleagues had been crunching -- putting in long hours, including nights and weekends -- for a video game release, only to be suddenly told that security was waiting to escort them off the premises.
Worker exploitation has always been part of the video game industry's DNA. Executives with multimillion-dollar stock packages often treat their employees like Tetris pieces, to be put into place as efficiently as possible, then promptly disposed of. For many kids who grew up with controllers in their hands, being a game developer is a dream job, so when it comes to talent, supply is higher than demand. Some people who make video games receive decent salaries and benefits (experienced programmers at the richest studios can make six figures), but many do not.
This brutal start to 2019 followed the closures of major game companies like Telltale, the makers of games based on The Walking Dead, and Capcom Vancouver, the large studio behind the popular action series Dead Rising in 2018. All in all, thousands of video game workers have lost their jobs in the past 12 months. In many of these cases, laid-off employees had no idea what was coming. One developer at a major studio told me in February that he and his colleagues had been crunching -- putting in long hours, including nights and weekends -- for a video game release, only to be suddenly told that security was waiting to escort them off the premises.
Worker exploitation has always been part of the video game industry's DNA. Executives with multimillion-dollar stock packages often treat their employees like Tetris pieces, to be put into place as efficiently as possible, then promptly disposed of. For many kids who grew up with controllers in their hands, being a game developer is a dream job, so when it comes to talent, supply is higher than demand. Some people who make video games receive decent salaries and benefits (experienced programmers at the richest studios can make six figures), but many do not.
Essentially game development is now using a engine (like Unreal, etc) and hooking up scripts and creating assets. That is why so many "big" games look like clones at this point.
If everyone and their dog want to do it, then there's lots of cut-throat competition and employers know they can treat you like crap. My relative found this out in the clothing designer industry.
Table-ized A.I.
Technically it could still be a dream job. Not all dreams are enjoyable.
I hear lots of kids say that they want to be game developers because they like to play games and they need a job when they're adults.
These same kids may enjoy fishing too (some of them get outside...) but very few have aspirations of becoming commercial fishermen. Somehow they know that's a very rough job that's not for most people.
*Anybody* considering a career really needs to think through the work/life balance and pay, from clerk to physician, and do their research. Somehow I don't think most gamers ever do that when they decide to go to school to be a game dev.
I've told a few high-schoolers about EA Widows and they were really surprised to hear it.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
But that's like ~SocIALisM~ bruh, we'll all slip down a slope where innovation stops and every video game is basically the same.... oh wait.
I always give younger people starting out their careers the same general advice that I was given and subsequently failed to heed as early as I should have: Find something you are good at and seek a job in whatever industry needs that skillset and will allow you to develop it further. Basically, I try to tell them to keep their "passion" for a particular cause or industry at bay, and develop their skills and resume instead. This is for two reasons.
1) You aren't going to become CEO of Sustainable Tech Incorporated because you loved what they stood for so much you took a job in the mail room. Sorry, it just isn't going to happen.
And, 2) You will learn to appreciate the benefit that different industries provide, and how just being good at something helps out your coworkers and customers.
The video games industry is notorious for running sweat shops that prey on the young and naive, people who would do better to find a steady, "boring" gig with a 401k and reasonable chances for advancement. Maybe something union, if that floats your boat.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
This really isn't specific to the gaming industry.
My first job (printer company) I lost because we were acquired and they wanted to cull the herd.
My second job (storage company) I lost because we outsourced everything.
My third job (HPC company) I lost because our CEO was an idiot and ran the company into the ground.
My fourth job (storage company) I lost because we bought our biggest competitor, put them in charge of my division, and then strangely we took the brunt of the cuts.
experienced programmers at the richest studios can make six figures
Experienced programmers pretty much anywhere should be making six figures. If they're not, they're probably being taken advantage of.
Why do you think it's now impossible to make games with a small group or solo dev? In fact, I'm a solo dev doing that right now, and there are plenty of other examples. Obviously, you can't expect to create a game that competes with AAA stuff, but there are plenty of game types that are well within reach of a single developer. Modern tools and language improvements allow you to be vastly more productive and do much, much more than you ever could back in the Apple II days (my first computer too).
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
In order to have a middle class life - support a family of four ( own a house, own a car, health insurance (and dental & vision), retirement savings), all on a single income requires a six figure salary in most places in the USA.
My grandfather did all that ( a family of seven!) on a BLUE COLLAR pay check - and all he had was a ninth grade education.
What's different? Aside from the fact that there were more opportunities back then and that about 10% of people went to college (and college was much cheaper back then), he was in a union.
The union made sure people got training, acted as a buffer for technology changes, and made sure management didn't abuse the workers too much. I'm not saying it was perfect but it was better than today.
Back then, they had stakeholder capitalism. Everyone - investors, workers, local residents (government) - had a say in the company.
Now it's all investors' interests and everyone else can go screw. Wealth rules - everyone else drools.
Miner wants to destroy the local environment and pollute the drinking water and destroy the fisheries downstream?
It's all good. Pretest and then you hate: jobs, capitalism, and America! Tough shit if the residents of that mining town have to drink bottled tap water out of plastic bottles.
Stakeholder capitalism = good.
Shareholder capitalism = evil.
My interest ended when it was no longer possible for a single programmer (or a very small group) to make games anymore. When I was a kid growing up with my Atari 400 and Apple II I dreamed of possibly being able to come up with a new game idea, programming it, and getting it published somewhere. However by the time I was in college and getting my computer science degree I realized that those days were long over and games were far too complex to make by yourself. Not to mention the whole industry had changed drastically by that time becoming the meat grinder it is today.
Personally I don't know why anyone would want to make games for a living anymore. Even if you don't mind the grueling hours, crappy management, and relatively low pay, it sucks the fun out of what you used to enjoy.
Sure you can; there are still games out there written by small groups or individuals. Some even sell astonishingly well. The trick is, you're going to have to stay motivated and have a day job in the beginning. It takes a lot longer to write a game by yourself than when you have room(s) full of developers. You're not going to compete with the big guys in graphics, effects, or music.
The trick to being a small operation is being creative. You've got to write a game, or reimagine a genre in a way that hasn't been done before, and is still fun. You've got to embrase quirky graphics, go pixel or 8 bit if you have to- embrase it! You're probably not going to write a good FPS that can compete with the big guys- so think of something different, something more unique.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
That's the same with almost any work that can be pleasurable, until you mix in a giant organization you have to please with a million bosses above you who all have a say.
The thing is, there has never been a better time to be a game developer and make games in a very small (sometimes just yourself) company.
Small shops can have too many bosses, too. Partnerships, for instance. You also may not be able to specialize in a particular area, because you are more likely to be wearing many hats. Not saying working for a megacorp is always better, but there are tradeoffs either way.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Some years back there used to be a (US?) print magazine titled "Game Developer Magazine". It existed from 1994 to 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I read it at the time because of a general interest in programming and computer games. I didn't ever really expect to get a job doing it. And reading that magazine didn't really change that expectation...
There was basically about three kinds of articles they generally had:
--One was about new game hardware, software or related tech coming soon.
--One was called "Post Mortem" where after a game was released, they would have a manager talk about all the major problems they had along the way.
--The last was general management articles about running computer game production.
From reading this magazine occasionally for a couple years I gathered two things:
1. Many people who got hired to code were recent college grads in LA or Austin TX, who really just took the job to put something on their resumes. The lower coding jobs were low salary and long hours with little benefits, and they left as soon as they found anything better.
2. There were constant problems with employee turnover. Many articles were about how to set up content management systems so that it was as easy as possible to get new people up to speed and working productively.
I often wondered who the target audience for this magazine really was. From reading it, working at a game company really didn't sound like much of a dream job.