I know since we're all here on GameSpot, a site all about video games, many of us aspire to do something in the video game world. So I have took it upon myself to do a little bit of research to find out who in the video game industry is going buck wild on their yacht, and who is living in their 1 bedroom studio apartment w/ their toaster 5 inches from their shower. This is the information I have come up with. I will make this easy to read by putting the years of experience, then the average amount paid.

1) Programming:

Less than 3 or fewer years' experience only makes
about $53k a year.

3 - 6 years' experience makes a much healthier $74k
a year

over 6 years' experience and you can expect around
$91k.

That being said, if you are a lead programmer or a
technical director you can expect to make $20k -
$30k more a year.

In conclusion the average wage for a programmer
across all experience levels is only 82k a year.
Just enough to start a family since you will most
likely be living in or near San Francisco a city
with a high cost of living.

2) Art and Animations:

3 or fewer years' experience only about $46k

3 - 6 years' of experience is around $61k

And 6 years' or more and you can expect around $70k

Again if you're a lead artist or animator, or an
art director you can expect to make around $7k - $30k more a year.

Average across all levels of experience is only
$66k. Nope, not big pimpin' yet.

3) Game Design:

3 or fewer years' and you can expect $43k

3 - 6 years' and you'll be around $55k

and 6 years' or more will boast you up to $70k

As always, if you're a writer, or creative director
you can expect to make $8k - $20k more a year.

The average salary across all experience levels is
only $64k. Still no dodge viper, but hey, you
wouldn't want to park it in front of your appartment
complex anyway.

4) Quality Assurance:

3 or fewer years' and you'll get paid in mountain
dew, actually around $25k a year

3 - 6 years' and you're raking in almost $30k

More than 6 years' and you'll be making around $35k

As always if you're a Q/A lead (apparently if you
can n00b the pwns) you can make $10k -
$15k more a year.

So yea, no big money here, but it just might be
worth living in mom's basement for the rest of your
life to get paid to play video games all day, ah,
the good life... I need more dew!

Now at this point, you might be asking yourself "where's all the Benjamin's at?" and if you are, go ahead and slap yourself in the face, don't worry, I'll wait.... are we good? okay. If you really want to make money in the video game industry, you're going to have to do something epic. Nobuo Uematsu (you may know him as the musical composer of most the Final Fantasy games 'including VII' as well as the Super Smash Bro's theme) has been paid millions for his creative genius. And we all know the story of the two Johns, Carmack and Romero. So in the world of video gaming, there's only one thing to be said "Go big, or go home" or maybe it should be "Go big, or no home?"

These figures are of a national average, and as the industry grows you can expect them to change. Thanks for you're time and I hope you found this informative.

Since the Wii was announced Nintendo has been going on and on about broadening their gamer market, to bring back the gamers of yesterday but also to bring something new for the gamers of today. After watching their E3 press announcement and looking back on their recent decisions, I've concluded that it seems that Nintendo's goals are to sell consoles, and nothing more. I myself fell ill w/ the nintendo bug, I bought a Nintendo Wii the first month of it's launch, after buying and trading in a few titles it became nothing more than a paperweight that sat beside my TV, I later sold it to my aunt, where it now sits as a paperweight next to her TV.

It seems to me that yes Nintendo has broadened their audience but has done little to nothing to please any of them. With the innovation the nintendo Wii offers and how hot of an item it is, you would think Nintendo would do more to control the market. Since the Wii's launch Nintendo has only released a handful of titles worth owning, most of which have different target audiences. It seems to me that Nintendo thinks that if they release 1 good game towards 10% of it's audience a year, they're happy. What about all the hard core gamers who bought the wii, sure we have SSBB and Zelda, but what's next? And for the casual gamer, are they doomed to nothing more than Wii sports games for the rest of this console generation?

Also it seems that Nintendo's third party companions are all about quantity not quality when it comes to the Wii. Every time I go into gamestop I see a wall of titles most of which have struggled to make it past a 5.0 review. All that said, Nintendo has always, and still does one thing right, handhelds, but Nintendo has been banking on their handhelds for too long, the DS can only take them so far. In the end I believe Nintendo needs to spend less time thinking about how good their consoles are selling and more time thinking about how poorly their software is. This is just my opinion and nothing more. Feel free to let me know how you feel on the subject.