Northeastmonk said: We also can't forget Richard Garriott went to space with his funds. So I bet some of them are living quite nice. Click to expand...

Some, sure. But this is a big-ticket business, the "average" may not work as a metric. It's a little like comparing the "average" salary of actors (which includes a number of people in the $20 million club, and a large number in there between $5 and $15mil) and saying that actors are all overpaid and living the life of luxury. That totally disregards the countless below-the-line people making scale. (Not to mention the cyclical nature of jobs, meaning work you do one week may have to last several weeks until the next gig; gaming isn't exactly like that, but the business does staff up and then downsize between projects quite a bit outside of the mega-franchises like AC and COD that release every year.) The "median" or "mode" number is probably better than the "average" at determining what this business pays.I do wish this article was a little more informed, because it is something we should ask as far as how salaries affect our purchases (then again, between the bomba phenomenon and the free-to-play/$0.99 movement and the entertainment-per-hour value of games, video games are a great bargain these days.) But as with any entertainment business, the stars are stars for a reason: they draw revenue, and they deserve the cut of the business they make. The balance of power between the stars and the consumer gets thrown off often (when's the last time any of us have been to a sports game recently? Too broke to go, myself,) but the system generally balances out to what the market will bear. And particularly when we're talking about games, there are certainly a few "eddie murphies" who are just driving Jags and renting mansions and taking in bank for less and less effort put in, but the majority of game design heads are the "clooneys" of the world, taking salaries well below their capabilities to remain close to their teammates and only enjoying the backend if everybody profits together. Go to a GDC talk, you'll see guys in fairly cheap suits talking about game ideas they had on the train ride in that they 're going to take back to their team and pitch with the commanding enthusiasm of Patton so that they can all head off together into the great unknown. Those are the guys I've known to be heading studios, and they deserve to be paid handsomely.