Neowin.net

Game Developer magazine has published the results of its annual game developer salary survey in the July 2002 issue. The survey indicates that the game development industry has remained healthy despite the downturn in the overall U.S. economy.

"Games are becoming an ever greater force in mainstream entertainment and culture, and with this trend comes increased interest in career opportunities in game development," said Jennifer Olsen, Editor-in-Chief, Game Developer magazine. "And because game development combines both entertainment and high- tech, the industry is well positioned to thrive in a variety of economic conditions."

Survey highlights include:

• The average game programmer salary is $66,000.
  
• A technical director with 6 or more years experience earns an average of $104,000.
  
• Game artists earn an average of $61,000.
  
• A game designer with one year of experience earns an average of $52,000, with the highest salary reported at $300,000.
  
• Game producers earn an average of $76,000.
  
• Developer salaries are highest in California and Texas, where game development studios tend to cluster.
  
• Women in the game industry fare better than women in other industries, earning 89 cents on the dollar, exceeding the national average of 76 cents.

News source: Yahoo

So Sun plans to give away for computers that run Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems from Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM a basic version of its application server, a type of backbone software that runs custom applications necessary for web services and communicates data between applications.

If it succeeds, developers wooed by free software will create programs for its systems, rather than Microsoft's.

"We are going after the .NET developer and deployer and the Linux community developer and deployer," said Marge Breya, vice president of the Sun ONE software division.

"What we're really trying to do is bring together these three developer communities into a consolidated Java web services ignition, if you well," she said.

Santa Clara, California-based Sun is a former Internet star which called itself "the dot in dot-com" until the firms that bought its computers to run their networks began going bankrupt.

Sun hopes that the free software will stimulate sales of its servers and of other software tools, including more sophisticated versions of the application server, Breya said.

By setting the non-Microsoft standard, Sun is "making sure we have a right to compete," she said. "We define open standards, compete on implementation."

However, the free offer is hardly an assurance of success.

Sun's competitive success in the application server market has been limited so far. In 2001 Sun slipped to fourth place in the market with a 7.9 percent share, behind BEA Systems Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp., researcher IDC Corp reported.

Sun also has failed to convince many that it is serious about software applications, which executives have long characterized as the means to sell hardware.