I would like to ask some questions about earning money towards someone who has had some experience working in the industry, and has seen some businesses come and go.

1. Is the game industry a profitable one, in comparison with other industries?

2. Do the people working in the industry want to earn as much money as possible, or do they rather view it as a means to express their creativity ( e.g. I love my job )

3. Would I be better off as the producer or as the publisher in terms of earning money?

4. How do I become someone like Bobby Kotick ( CEO of Activision )

5. Is it difficult for a game to be profitable (in comparison to other industries)?

6. Is it considered difficult among game developers to make a living, let alone becoming rich?

7. What's the general opinion about earning money among game developers?

8. What's YOUR opinion about earning money?

Thank you for your time!
Nick

1. Yes.
2. Most are in it because they love the work.
3. A publisher (the president of a big publishing company) earns a lot more than a producer does.
4. If it was easy to tell you how to do that, everybody would be Bobby Kotick. Take some "how to get rich" courses, then buy a company (the way Bobby did it was to start a small company, make it successful, then with his money and some partners' money, bought the company when it was failing, then made it successful). Or work your way up in executive ranks at a game publisher, that might work too.
5. Yes.
6. Your question is weird. If you get a job, then you make a living.
7. We like to do it.
8. I like to do it. (Your question is strange.)

Quote: Original post by Nikke
I would like to ask some questions about earning money towards someone who has had some experience working in the industry, and has seen some businesses come and go.

1. Is the game industry a profitable one, in comparison with other industries?

2. Do the people working in the industry want to earn as much money as possible, or do they rather view it as a means to express their creativity ( e.g. I love my job )

3. Would I be better off as the producer or as the publisher in terms of earning money?

4. How do I become someone like Bobby Kotick ( CEO of Activision )

5. Is it difficult for a game to be profitable (in comparison to other industries)?

6. Is it considered difficult among game developers to make a living, let alone becoming rich?

7. What's the general opinion about earning money among game developers?

8. What's YOUR opinion about earning money?

Thank you for your time!
Nick

I will try to answer your questions based on what I know about some industry professionals.

1. In general, no. It greatly depends on where you put the border on what is "game industry" and what is not, though. It also depends on the position you work in.
2.
3. Publisher.
4. Work long, hard, and be lucky. Simply put, you can't.
5. This largely depends on what you work on. Everybody knows Fifa 14 will make just as much money as always. Why Minecraft became popular nobody knows.
6. What I know from game programmers is that their knowledge is generally broad enough to easily get employed outside of the game industry if they have to. Same goes for art people. Finding work in games can be hard, though.
7. No idea.
8. It's fine if it pays the bills. Then again, I'm a student.

2. Those who are just in it for the money don't make it far. I've worked with these kinds of people, they go from Task to Task given to them by the Lead. Whereas someone "in love" with it, puts in that little extra effort to make it shine.

5. Ohhh Yes. Competing with the big Names is difficult. And even going "around" that by finding a Market niche doesn't guarantee success, unlike in some industries. Games aren't a Product people need.

6. For Game Devs in a big Company, making a living isn't a problem, but you won't become rich.
For Indie Game Devs, making a living is often a struggle, but you might hit it big (Minecraft)

7. I like Money

8. I still like Money

I just wanted to add that as a game programmer, I don't make quite as much money making games as i could making other kinds of software, but it is a lot more challenging and interesting than making other kinds of software.

You still make a good living programming games, but working on web stores or billing applications, i'd be making probably another 30% of my current salary at least.

I dont think i could handle the monotony... i did business dev for 5 years and now have done 5 years of game dev too and i won't ever go back to business dev if i can help it.

Thank you for all your answers, this was really helpful! :)

[color=#1C2837][size=2]1. Is the game industry a profitable one, in comparison with other industries?

2. Do the people working in the industry want to earn as much money as possible, or do they rather view it as a means to express their creativity ( e.g. I love my job )

3. Would I be better off as the producer or as the publisher in terms of earning money?

4. How do I become someone like Bobby Kotick ( CEO of Activision )

5. Is it difficult for a game to be profitable (in comparison to other industries)?

6. Is it considered difficult among game developers to make a living, let alone becoming rich?

7. What's the general opinion about earning money among game developers?

8. What's YOUR opinion about earning money?[/quote]

[color=#1C2837][size=2]1: Yes, its very profitable. It all depends on how much traffic your game generates, how users can support the game - are you going to make money from ads or donations?
[color="#1C2837"]2: Some people are in it for a hobby, some are here for business.
[color="#1C2837"]3: Go for producer, most producers do well.
[color="#1C2837"]

[color="#1C2837"]5: Yea, because it takes time to start earning serious money from online games.
[color="#1C2837"]

[color="#1C2837"]6: Possibly, same as above - because it takes a while to start earning money.
[color="#1C2837"]

1. The industry is compared to other industries, but a disproportionate amount tends to be among a select few hits. Further, due to competitiveness for jobs, the actual pay for individuals can be less than other skilled work.

2. Often times, 'I love my job'.

3. Publisher I would assume in general.

4. Excellent social skills, excellent organization and management skills, hard work, a healthy dose of luck...

5. Yes.

6. Generally no.

7. That making games is worth the ~10-20% income cut compared to their bizdev brethren.

8. Between 'enough to not worry about money' and 'enough to retire' there's not much difference. If I take a little pay cut to not hate 10 hours of my waking day that's more than a fair trade. If I'm making less than people of similar talent at my job, that pisses me off. ...that's pretty much all I think about earning money.

cpvr bumped a month-old thread that had already satisfactorily given the OP his information.
We can stop adding to it now.