2011 Salary Report of Game Developers

[Jdevil3]

enrageorange said:

Jdevil3 said:
Damn, even the tester with less than 3 years of experience earns more than me.

I earn a little less than $15000 US dollars (with current exchange rates) per year and I'm considered well payed compared to many people here... and the worst thing is that everything costs at least 2 times what stuff costs in the US :S

while electronics and other luxeries probably cost more, I can assure you the cost of living is a lot less. I lived in a country with a similar average wage as argintina, and my father earning 20k a year there could afford nearly as much as he can now earning 110k a year in northern New Jersey, United States. Only difference is we can afford a lot more electronics. We live in a very similar sized house in a similarly pleasent neighborhood. Go out a similar amount of times, similar cloths, similar utilities, etc. as we did when my dad was earning a fifth of what he is now, but not in America.

Really? O_o what costs so much there that makes the difference between 20k to 110k per year almost disappear? I've seen in movies that people there have extremelly big houses with a lot of very nice furniture, very nice cars, even the 18 year old kids already have a car, they go to very nice schools/high schools and university (universities are very expensive there from what I've heard... while some of the most respectable universities are free here), also people there seem to buy a hell of a lot of stuff on christmas like they're rich or something (from what I've seen on movies)... oh, and people seem to eat a lot more there than we do here.

Also, maybe it's stuff like people selling non-brand clothes and stuff for a fraction of the price of the branded ones that also makes a difference. Those "illegal" places are everywhere here at the sight of everyone... so most people go to those places to pay 10 dollars for a T-shirt instead of 50 in a store, I doubt it's the same in the US, so more people have to buy the "expensive" version. Also, there's piracy... most people rent or buy pirated movies to pay 2 dollars instead of 40-60 in a store... same goes for games and music CDs... except games are like 80 to 120 right now (new releases). Piracy is so normal here that there are even people who live from getting into busses and sell their CDs to people.

I don't know about phone bills, internet (I think it's cheaper there that it is here), electricity, gas, TV, etc... but maybe it's all these differences I've mentioned (and more) that ends up making the difference between 20k to 110k "disappear".