> Why employees in the games industry put up with this sort of thing is frankly beyond me.
They typically don't, forever.
But there's an unending stream of fresh meat entering the game industry who will put up with anything to achieve their dreams of working on video games.
I've been lucky, in that I've done a lot of games, but haven't worked anywhere that routinely required overtime of me. The occasional project here or there would go south, or there would be a bad manager, but other than the last week or two of crunch to get a project finished, I've not done too badly.
> What's up with gaming related jobs being at the top though
If I had to stereotype based on US gaming companies:
-Long hours
-Relatively low pay
-Typically located around urban centers (so a higher CoL)
-If the controversies at Riot, Activision Blizzard, and Ubisoft are any indication then many game related employees are emotionally stunted and immature.
> The game industry is as bad an employer as it can get away with, because so many people are eager to join. That's why the game industry can mostly get away with low pay and crunch time.
This is the whole thing, you've laid it bare here. The games industry is exploiting it's workers' passion.
If there were game workers' unions, we'd see a lot less of this type of behavior, as has been shown time and time again.
> If you're doing 70+ hours a week, you're working for the wrong company. Move.
Or maybe you're working in the wrong industry. The cynic in me cannot help but label enthusiasm for creation of games as a severe economic handicap - one that many companies have no qualms taking advantage of. You love games? That's great, you'll also love unpaid overtime.
> Game development seems to require a high amount of skill and creativity in terms of design, art and development. But whenever I read articles or hear talks about the business of things it seems like there is a huge disconnect between requirements and the compensation. And not only that but the economical impact of games is rather large. It seems like big publishers are doing very well.
Sadly, it boils down to oversupply and people putting up with it due to passion. "Too many" people want to work in (non-mobile) video games, people fight over vacancy, and publishers can keep the pay low and employees overworked as their passion fuels them. Then burnout happens, some leave, and the cycle continues. I don't have a proper source so take this with a grain of salt, but I heard it pays more to work in IT than in game development, in the same region. (Same experience level)
>and where the number of alternative options available to the average worker is low to non-existent.
How many video game designers or programmers do you know? How bustling is that industry, in your opinion? Because I have a slightly different perspective from what I hear.
Also, amount of money made != can't complain about their work or their conditions. Also, FAANG != EA, Activision, etc.
> Agreed. There are plenty of people who work hard their entire career and don't get any kind of windfall.
There's a lot of talk about survivorship bias, but I have to admit, in 10 years that I've worked in game development, I've never seen anyone like that.
Either people change careers, industries or you can see that they're already burned out. I've never seen a good performer with a lot of experience in the same field and career, and ambition for more, who would be stuck.
> If people continue to work in the games industry despite the workload and pay they must be getting something out of it.
Most people are. They get to meet with cool folks, they get press coverage, there's a lot of feedback loop between users and creators (much more than in virtually any other industry), and you get to work with people who have the same passion as you - and you can actually USE and ENJOY what you create as well. That's worth something, even if not necessarily in monetary value.
Given everything I've ever heard about working conditions, pay, and benefits in video game studios, it seems more appropriate to think of them as opposite to the mainstream software industry rather than a part of it.
> I don't see why benevolent needs to be in quotes in your comment
> most companies don't do.
Because most companies are for-profit entities. Most companies don't do this because they aren't in this specific situation. Most gaming companies have really delicate economics (high up front capital costs, with less than guaranteed returns).
Call me cynical all you want, but the idea that video gaming companies (of all industries) are somehow out to provide benevolently for it's software developing community is laughable at best (see EA, Ubisoft, Zynga etc). The video gaming market is rife with abusing long hours out of it's employees.
> 1. A lot of young people believe working with games is only fun, providing endless bodies to be hired and replace the previous young that realized how much it suck that they quit.
> 2. Games market follow a very strong winner takes all model, a few games have all profits, literally thousands games are released yearly that nobody ever heard of or bought.
These are both true of movies, but that is a heavily unionized industry.
As a former developer in the game industry, I find that difficult to believe. The average career of someone in the game industry is ~3-6 years[1], as devs get chewed up, burnt out, and then discover that by leaving they can (usually) have greater work/life balance for about 50-100%+ more money.
I lasted about four years myself, and as much as I'd love to work on games again, I couldn't accept the pay cut or the long hours. So I just make games in my free time now. I may take a 3-6 month sabbatical at some point to work on it full time again for a little while, but it'll be my own projects.
They must treat their devs pretty poorly and/or pay garbage salaries there if gaming companies are successfully stealing devs away.
This is something that many AAA game companies dropping their staff left and right over things like RTO and management whims should learn.
Some executives see institutional knowledge, multi-decade franchise experience, and good software engineering as not worth paying for. Especially when there are many graduates who would jump at any chance to work in their dream game company for any pay whatsoever.
The results are evident. The chances of reaching retirement in this industry seem on par with winning a lottery, the average tenure in AAAs seems to have dropped to 2-3 years, and not that many people been through a full game production process. Not to mention the change in quality of an average AAA game since 2013.
Are you referring to the mandatory overtime and low pay across the gaming industry there? :)
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