I worked in games for only a handful of years starting around 2010, but after many holiday weekends of crunch into the 3am period, and multiple studio closures, I decided to double my pay and end crunch altogether by shifting to the regular software dev industry.
Only company I would go back for is something like Valve. Privately owned, incredibly stable cash flow, and run by someone with both passion and respect for their people… but even then, I doubt they’d pay as much as I make now.
Perfect summary.
I worked in games for only a handful of years starting around 2010, but after many holiday weekends of crunch into the 3am period, and multiple studio closures, I decided to double my pay and end crunch altogether by shifting to the regular software dev industry.
Only company I would go back for is something like Valve. Privately owned, incredibly stable cash flow, and run by someone with both passion and respect for their people… but even then, I doubt they’d pay as much as I make now.