I did. Here you go:
http://penguinrungames.com/images/averages.png
Averages are higher for gaming industry jobs than comparable non-industry jobs.
The problem with these numbers is that you don't don't know how to interpret them. "Programmers" is a VAST and highly general bucket encompassing all levels of skill. The skill variance is much lower among game programmers, and without exception, 100% of them can make 30-50% more out of the games industry.
And if you want to call me out on the fact that I quoted a phrase which you didn't actually say in the article, you might as well have said it with all your implications.
statements like this make one start to wonder if game developers and consequently publishers really should be making enough money to afford $70,000 sports cars to begin with.
So what does this mean then, if not that most developers are making enough money to afford $70,000 sports cars? Does it mean that you think exactly 0 game developers should be making enough to afford $70,000 sports cars? What about the CEOs of game development shops? What about programmers who grow into CEOs? What about the guy who founded the company out of his garage and it went on to make games that sell 10 million copies every time? Should that guy also not be able to affored a $70,000 car? Why should they be treated differently than
every other industry in the world, where there are success stories?
And yet, the publisher has been raising the prices on their in-game items lately. Why? So people working there can afford more $70,000 sports cars?
Again with the implication. If you're not talking about "most", then what quantity are you talking about? 1 or 2? 10? "An insignificant number"? "A few"? Guess what, there's "a few" rich people in every profession.
I can count the number of Cliffy B's and John Carmack's on 2 hands. That's not a very high number for an entire industry. Go drive around the parking lot of your favorite game company and see how many $70,000 cars you see. Then count the number of Toyota Priuses, Honda Accords, and Toyota Camry's. Get back to me when you're done.
Are we to believe there isn't an equally qualified person out there willing to do this guy's job for less pay?
And here you've hit the nail on the head. Because that is EXACTLY what we are to believe, since it is the truth. The difference between a $50,000 engineer and a $120,000 engineer is so vast that it can't even be quantified with a dollar value. Unless maybe we're talking about the dollar value that the entire game brings in in revenue, since it is precisely because of the $120,000 engineers that the game is even able to ship at all. A single $120,000 engineer is FAR CHEAPER than 2.4 $50,000 engineers. In fact, I would go so far as to say that 2.4 $50,000 engineers (or even 1 for that matter) are a straight up liability and will put your game at risk of not even shipping at all.
But of course you don't know or understand any of this, because you don't know anything about the industry other than what you've collected from some unscientific, meaningless aggregated data that you don't know how to interpret.