information varies, as a counterpoint here is another article from last year, that was also covered on The Escapist:
http://www.maxim.com/amg/gaming/articles/90016/why-many-game-developers-drive-ferraris.html
Their source is supposed to be from the game makers themselves, by the group Game Developers Research, which incidently sells reports on what the industry is making off their sites:
http://gamedeveloperresearch.com/2010-salary-survey.htm
I'd also point out that some of the legal action involved Activision has been about hundreds of millions of dollars in undelievered bonuses. Something I might add which leads one to believe that these large bonuses are not viewed as being "too good to be true" within the industry:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/04/infinity-ward-staff-sues-activision-for-500-million.ars
Of course it's a back and forth thing, after all with people like me commenting on the price of games and pointing fingers at the demands of game developers as the culprit, it's not surprising we're seeing the industry involved in it's own propaganda. Very much akin to the claims that somehow piracy is stealing food from the tables of game developers, when that's generally inaccurate as it's costing producers money if anything.
As John points out in his article, nobody really knows the answers, and none of these companies are exactly going to open up their books to the public.
In the end my basic attitude is that we've been seeing large teams involved in game development for a long time now. When it's claimed by companies like "Square Enix" that it's too expensive for them to create a game like "Final Fantasy VII" with it's detailed city enviroments given current technology (this was said in defense of "Final Fantasy XIII"), I really think the issue has to do with what these people are demanding for money rather than any real technical limitations. After all, if the tech was that limited it wouldn't be an upgrade from the old stuff, and we never would have went to "next gen" with the current stuff.
In short, I don't think this research is accurate.
http://www.maxim.com/amg/gaming/articles/90016/why-many-game-developers-drive-ferraris.html
Their source is supposed to be from the game makers themselves, by the group Game Developers Research, which incidently sells reports on what the industry is making off their sites:
http://gamedeveloperresearch.com/2010-salary-survey.htm
I'd also point out that some of the legal action involved Activision has been about hundreds of millions of dollars in undelievered bonuses. Something I might add which leads one to believe that these large bonuses are not viewed as being "too good to be true" within the industry:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/04/infinity-ward-staff-sues-activision-for-500-million.ars
Of course it's a back and forth thing, after all with people like me commenting on the price of games and pointing fingers at the demands of game developers as the culprit, it's not surprising we're seeing the industry involved in it's own propaganda. Very much akin to the claims that somehow piracy is stealing food from the tables of game developers, when that's generally inaccurate as it's costing producers money if anything.
As John points out in his article, nobody really knows the answers, and none of these companies are exactly going to open up their books to the public.
In the end my basic attitude is that we've been seeing large teams involved in game development for a long time now. When it's claimed by companies like "Square Enix" that it's too expensive for them to create a game like "Final Fantasy VII" with it's detailed city enviroments given current technology (this was said in defense of "Final Fantasy XIII"), I really think the issue has to do with what these people are demanding for money rather than any real technical limitations. After all, if the tech was that limited it wouldn't be an upgrade from the old stuff, and we never would have went to "next gen" with the current stuff.
In short, I don't think this research is accurate.
