Exclusive: Game Developer Survey Probes Game Industry Gender Gap

As part of Game Developer magazine's 5th Annual Salary Survey, published in full in the April 2006 issue of the Gamasutra sister publication, up to date details about the current gender make-up of the video game industry have been revealed. The survey, conducted by firm Audience Insights on behalf of Game Developer, and targeting Game Developers Conference 2005 attendees, Game Developer magazine subscribers, and Gamasutra.com members in January 2006, received over 6,000 unique responses, and used final sample data of over 3,000 qualified responses. The survey revealed overall average game professional make-up and salary by gender was 90% male, with an average salary of $74,518, compared to 10% female, with an average salary of $69,704. This compares interestingly to two years ago, when the Game Developer Salary Survey had women in only 7% of game industry jobs, showing that the female quotient is increasingly somewhat rapidly. As for percentages in individual disciplines, business and legal, with 27% female, 72% male (marketing, PR, sales, other administrative staff, executives) saw the largest female quotient, with production (producers and executive producers) also comparatively high, at 21% female, 79% male. On the other end of the spectrum, game design saw just 7% female and 93% male, and the programming discipline saw the lowest female percentages altogether, with 4% female respondents and 96% male. Art was the development discipline most staffed by women, with 10% female artists and 90% male across the Audience Insights survey, which is the only major survey of game professional salary and location information conducted each year. The full results, including multi-disciplinary salary and location data for both male and female developers, are available in the April issue of Game Developer magazine - more information on the issue is available at its official website.