Not really in California. That’s only like 150k equivalent in an average US city, which isn’t great.
Like yeah it’s a good salary but not what I’d expect for his worth to the company.
Not really in California. That’s only like 150k equivalent in an average US city, which isn’t great.
Like yeah it’s a good salary but not what I’d expect for his worth to the company.
Less than 10% of individuals in the US make 100k a year. So Sawyer literally makes more money than like 95% of the population. That’s pretty good. He’s a smart guy so I’m sure he lives comfortably.
Im pretty sure he is getting paid exactly his worth to Obsidian and Microsoft.
Yeah. At least you’re aware of the contexts.
It’s crazy looking at various statistics of median household incomes wcross different cities, house values, and different career salary ranges. I’ve had many friends trying to lure me away from Cleveland to New York, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, LA, Vancouver, Toronto. The variances in what’s required for the same style of living is truly mind blowing. The cost of housing is the biggest factor, but even basic groceries have such a difference too. The US federal tax system doesn’t help either as it doesn’t take into account location-based costs.
There’s also the expectation of hours worked, where higher position you have, the more you work even outside of work. Then there might be the old school rank rating systems and cutthroat behavior for each person that doesn’t really promote teamwork outside of what’s measured. I’m surprised to see it still exists at some companies even today, since it’s a relic of decades gone by. It was bad at Microsoft when they used it, but fortunately they no longer use it. Even with all the improvements, I’m glad I am outside of game development sphere today. More free time, less pressure, more control over what I work on.
That’s why a lot of these salary reveals don’t phase me. There’s a lot of context that many don’t have.
The ugly truth about the game industry is that it doesn’t pay as well. Engineers will make more money then designers. When I was a programmer in the game industry in the 90’s I was making half as my friends was making as programmers. When I finally got a new job at a startup I made 60% more. I think the gap has closed more recently but the ugly truth is alot of engineers eventually will leave the game industry for a much better salary/hours/benefits in the corporate world.
That’s wild, hope more changes. Creators are invaluable.
We also don’t know if he is not getting other benefits in lieu of a bigger salary such as more generous health care etc.
I am sure if he is not happy with his salary he would have left ages ago, but I suspect that might be the going rate for a person in his position.
I mean that Halo Infinite stays like that - or higher - ![]()
Can we get back on topic?
King is back

All they need is a fire game awards showing now
After last year’s showing I did not expect this for Halo, but when those very positive previews dropped it was clear it would score decent, but a overall 87 is damn sweet!
I am not reading or watching any of the reviews, let me just experience it all myself but my buddy who read IGN said the biggest con is that there’s no variation in the locations like we previously always had, but then to still score a 9 is…very impressive, let’s get it!
This is great but they just made up the figure for AOE, it’s 81.
Xbox cannot compete with PlayStation I was told
.
83 on OC.
I think OC is a better aggregator for Xbox games because MC still seperates PC/XB1/XSX reviews
Predict next year:
Forza Motorsport 88
Redfall 86
Starfield 93
Ghostwire Tokyo (sigh) 82
Glad Halo is being received so well and my prediction of mid 80s being correct 
Very happy for 343 though, not sure there’s another developer that gets as much shit as them, now they finally have the foundation for both campign and multiplayer going forward
Can we give mad props to Playground Games, again, and Coalition (no matter what you think about Gears 5) for launching complete package AAA games in 2-3 year dev cycles? Who does that anymore?
And yes they had the bit of advantage where they didn’t reinvent or rebuild their foundation like 343i, but still, credit is so much deserved.
3/5 of players voice top 5 are Microsoft currently. (and Deathloop in top 10) Pretty good, pretty pretty good