Personally, I often have the impression as if - not only in the computer games market, but also in literature and music - the companies which are selling (the publishers) try a) to pay the artists / developers as little as possible , b) to sell the game as the highest possibble (appropriate) price.
Well, most print publishers (speaking from my own personal experience) pay their new to mid-level novelists a small percentage in terms of royalties. That's why a lot of authors get an agent. The agent often negotiates on behalf of the writer and can get a better royalty percentage than some who go it alone. Although, I've been fortunate and haven't needed an agent. Then again, I'm not at the level where it would do me any good. The average royalty figure is between 8% and 14% per book sale. Plus, if you have an agent, he/she gets 10% of your 8% - 14%. Stephen King, the fast food author of the publishing industry, has never used an agent. He has always negotiated his own contracts. Some big name authors don't use an agent and others do. A lot depends on the genre and the writer.
Another factor to consider is print literature is a lot more expensive to publish than CDs. Then again on most large games have a large staff to consider, whereas in printed literature the biggest expense is the actual printing process (especially if illustrations and color is involved). Which is exactly the reason magazines cost as much as they do (and there is an advertisement on every single page!!)
Also, there is information on how much it costs to produce a video game. Check out the technology pages in some of these publishers:
Electronic Gaming Monthly,
Ziff-Davis/ZDNet,
gamers.com an e-zine that's devoted to some of the writers and publishers within the industry,
IT World, etc.
PC Gamer doesn't publish a lot of financial information (within the video game world) because their target audience would rather see reviews, downloads, game ratings, game play rather than read about financial reports. However, if you looking for financial information, the best place to look is in the financial or technology publishers whose target audience is interested in the nitty gritty of game development such as
Guru.com and other websites. This info can be found by doing an internet search using any search engine. I've found a lot of developers' websites who have forums for people who design work for major publishers or freelance work (like I do). Here are a few websites that I have in my 'favorites' file:
Gamasutra.com,
GameDev.net and
flipcode.com. These are chock full of info for and about game developers.
I don't know if any of these links will help take the mystery out of the gaming industry, but it's a start. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Good day, all! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />
Faralas <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mage.gif" alt="" />
