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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Why are there still so many game studios in California?

twesterm on 04 December 2009
Procrastinato said:
Kantor said:
If a developer needs to cut costs, they can cut salaries without packing up and moving halfway across the country.

You're kind of thinking of developers as robots who will put up with that kind of treatment, with this statement.

There is fierce, fierce demand for experienced devs in the games industry.  It has a high burnout rate, and those able to weather the taxing workload long enough to become senior, experienced devs are not folks you can cut the salary on.

Likewise, newbie developers, while they have lots of energy, struggle so much with the details of game development (without guidance from experienced devs), that hiring them alone isn't really a valid option, either.

Yeah, you can probably get away giving a pay cut to a bad employee but doing it to everybody or most everybody won't be taken well at all.  That's a quick way to get everyone to leave your studio.

And yeah, uprooting your studio is incredibly expensive and I'm sure you would lose a lot of people, I just find it odd that these big publishers sometimes don't look at California prices and then look at anywhere else and realize the kind of money they can save.  They could either completely shut down the studio, or move it just keeping key people and hiring the rest when they need it.



 

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Slimebeast on 04 December 2009

twesterm are you applying to a pro game studio yet?



Procrastinato on 04 December 2009
Kantor said:
Procrastinato said:
Kantor said:
If a developer needs to cut costs, they can cut salaries without packing up and moving halfway across the country.

You're kind of thinking of developers as robots who will put up with that kind of treatment, with this statement.

There is fierce, fierce demand for experienced devs in the games industry.  It has a high burnout rate, and those able to weather the taxing workload long enough to become senior, experienced devs are not folks you can cut the salary on.

Likewise, newbie developers, while they have lots of energy, struggle so much with the details of game development (without guidance from experienced devs), that hiring them alone isn't really a valid option, either.

I think a $20,000 salary cut would be more popular with the developers than a $20,000 salary cut AND moving to Texas.

They would lose employees either way, of course, but if they have to cut costs, they have to cut costs, and better a smaller salary than no job.

I suppose that depends.  A $20K (large) salary cut would inspire a lot of devs to just plain find work in other industries.  Frankly that's another reason Silicon Valley and Seattle are such hotspots.  If you really had to cut budgets that drastically on a project... you'd be in big, big trouble.  You'd basically be shutting the project down, and trying to pull a Duke Nukem Forever at some later date.



 

alephnull on 04 December 2009

1) India has a lower cost of living.
2) Texan universities simply are not quite in California's league. IBM has to fly professors into Austin to train
employees.
3) Texas has an anti-intellectual image among many non-Texans.



twesterm on 04 December 2009
alephnull said:
1) India has a lower cost of living.
2) Texan universities simply are not quite in California's league. IBM has to fly professors into Austin to train
employees.
3) Texas has an anti-intellectual image among many non-Texans.

Now that is funny.



 

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kiefer23 on 04 December 2009
twesterm said:
sethnintendo said:
News flash there are a few game studios in Austin, Texas where I live!

Never said there weren't, in fact, there are more than a few.

I'm just wondering why the main gathering of studios is in California.


Because most of them are big Terminator geeks and they have more chance of seeing the Terminator in the flesh in Cali?



bardicverse on 04 December 2009

Texas has a bit of a history of studios dying - Origin (bought and sent to die by EA), Ultima/Lord British Games (bought and sent to die by EA, then there's a few underground casual devs there that have been having a hard time in recent years in the DFW area.

So, there might be a bit of a stigma against moving to TX, despite id being there, which is now bought out by Zenimax, right?

As for why Cali, its just where E3 and GDC are, but moreso the Silicon Valley from which the game industry emerged. Would be my guess. Our studio is in NJ, as is SNK.



nofingershaha on 04 December 2009

California is good for studios only if they are independent, unlike internal studios which cost publishers to maintain even if they aren't doing anything.



Riachu on 04 December 2009

talking about location and salaries is really making me think in terms of being a game designer



 

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outlawauron on 04 December 2009

Not sure, it seems like a dumb move to invest in a new studio with California the way it is.



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