The average American videogame business salary was a healthy $79,000 in 2008, a record high. I don’t think anyone was expecting a record high for the year 2009 for any kind of salary, so I suppose no one will be surprised to hear that the average salary decreased last year.
It’s not too bad, though. It comes out to a 4 percent drop for ’09, putting the average at $75, 573. That’s still better than 2007’s figure and is still the second-highest average ever. Still, the Game Developer Research folks say that this is the first significant average salary decrease.
Despite the drop, the folks at GDR say that skilled professionals are still needed. Those looking to get into games, don’t sweat it. I think 2010 is going to be a pretty solid year for games in general.
Heh, Infinity Ward might be hiring.
Here are the year’s averages by job:
- Programming: $80.320
- Art and Animation: $71.071
- Designers: 69.266
- Writers: $61,786
- Production: $75.082
- QA: $37,905
- Audio: $82,085 (damn)
- Business/Marketing: $96,408
- PR: $83,804 (whatever…)
- Execs: $129,167
