US Developer salaries down 4% in 2009 - Survey

Gaming industry sales in the US were down 8 percent last year, and that fact was reflected by the salaries of game developers. Game Developer Research today released its annual game developer salary survey results, finding that US developers' wages slipped on average 4 percent in 2009 to $75,573 per year.

The $79,000 annual average of 2008 was a record high, and 2009's median is still the second highest in the survey's nine-year history. However, the research group noted this was the first time the development community suffered any kind of a significant decrease in average salary.

As in previous years, the best-paid game-industry positions were in business and marketing, with people in those roles bringing in an average of $96,408. After the salesmen, the highest-paid positions were sound designers ($82,085), programmers ($80,320), producers ($75,082), artists ($71,071), and game designers ($69,266).

Bringing up the rear were quality assurance testers, who brought in a median income of $37,905--slightly more than half the average developer salary. According to the US Census Bureau, the average household income in the country for 2008 was $50,303.

Despite the average salary of sound designers, Game Developer Research referred to programmers as "the highest paid talent in the mainstream game industry next to high-end businesspeople."

To prevent skewed results, the survey excluded reported salaries under $10,000, as well as those from students or educators. In previous years, the developer survey results had omitted unusually high salaries as well, though the company's report overview made no mention of particularly high salaries being omitted from the data. GDR representatives had not returned GameSpot's request for clarification as of press time.