Video Game Programmers / Producers Earn $70,000+ Per Year In Canada (Average)

I was reading the Toronto Metro today and came across an interesting article detailing the maturation of the Canadian gaming industry.

According to the Game Developer magazine research cited in the article, the "average programmer or game producer in Canada now makes more than $70,000 US". While high, Canadian employers still pay lower salaries than their US counterparts.

Figures are also given for artists, animators and game designers - they each take home approximately $58,000 on average. Audio techs rake in $57,000 a year, and those poor QA workers make the lowest at $37,000 US.

What's also interesting is to read that Canadian video game employers are increasing requiring job applicants to have post-secondary degrees as a requirement for employment.

Speaking to the Associated Press, Josh Holmes, Studio Manager at Vancouver-based Propaganda Games said:

“In the past, you might have seen people breaking into the industry through self-schooling or working their way from the ground up (in product testing). The new recruits now come with a much more focused skill set, and they’re able to hit the ground running.”
It's great to see the industry in Canada mature from the garage developer roots of the 70s and early 80s to the highly skilled professional industry we have today. With acclaimed developers such as Bioware, Silicon Knights, Ubisoft, EA and many more, Canada is becoming a hotbed for rapid video game industry growth.

Source: Metro News via The Associated Press