The video game industry has hundreds of companies to work for, including the developers actually making games and publishers releasing them as products. And apparently, everyone working in the industry would rather be working at Valve.
A new survey by trade organization International Game Developers Association (IGDA) shows that people working in the game industry find Valve the most desirable company to work for.
The top ten survey answers were:
1. Valve (Half-Life, Steam)
2. My own company
3. Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft)
4. BioWare (Mass Effect, Dragon Age)
5. Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed, Far Cry)
6. Current employer
7. Nintendo (Mario, The Legend of Zelda)
8. Naughty Dog (The Last of Us, Uncharted)
9. Double Fine (Psychonauts, Broken Age)
10. Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls)
Valve even beat out the people who voted for their own company or current employer as the best place to work. The company is known for producing the critically-acclaimed franchises Half-Life and Portal, both science fiction first-person shooters that emphasized storytelling along with the gameplay. Other game franchises from the company include team-based shooter Team Fortress and zombie apocalypse shooter Left 4 Dead. They are also the company behind Steam, the digital download marketplace and software for computer games.
The nearest competitor for workplace desirability was Activision Blizzard, the company behind best-selling franchises such as military shooter Call of Duty and online RPG World of Warcraft. BioWare, a developer owned by Electronic Arts, is known for making role-playing games for consoles and computer, such as fantasy RPG Dragon Age and scifi RPG Mass Effect. Ubisoft, the company behind the historical action series Assassin's Creed and open-world shooter Far Cry, round out the top five.
Other interesting details revealed by the survey include: 76 percent of those surveyed were men and 79 percent said diversity is important for the industry. While 40 percent say they work in the game industry to follow their passion, 41 percent say it is to make a living. 49 percent say they would rather work for an independent developer, versus the 36 percent who said they want to work for a AAA studio.
The IGDA collected this information from a survey that was answered by more than 2,200 game developers as part of its annual Developer Satisfaction Survey.
Photo: Tim Dorr
