Why aren’t video game developers paid more by studios?
The video game industry has had a long and unsavory relationship with its workers. It’s no secret that the majority of employees aren’t paid well or treated fairly if not both. However, it appears that this also extends to people who are actually working on video games and not just contracts and freelancers. In a bid to try and get studios to pay them more, programmers and designers have decided to step up and make their salaries public. The #GameDevPaidMe movement encourages video game developers (and pretty much anyone else in the same industry) to disclose their compensation every year for transparency’s sake. This isn’t the first time that such a movement has gained traction. Nevertheless, it’s getting a ton of support. What is the most interesting part about the movement is how little developers are paid relative to how much people believe their salaries are. Video games is a multi-billion-dollar industry. The COVID-19 pandemic might have affected the production of hardware and pushed back the development timeline of several games, but it did lead to a boom in video game sales. The handful of games that were released in 2020 and 2021 enjoyed a ton of commercial success. You’d think that the people behind the video games that all of us enjoy are getting paid well, but you’d be wrong. To the surprise and dismay of many inside and outside the video game industry, people are just finding out how little they are making relative to their efforts. Ultimately, the goal of the movement is to encourage employees to ask for fair compensation and for employers to offer competitive salaries. Maybe, just maybe, if this happens, fewer video games would release incomplete like GTA Trilogy.
