Seems like every time you turn around, there’s doom and gloom surrounding the business of video games. In a happy holiday turn, some good news comes our way from Dan at the ESA regarding the health of the games industry. Turns out that the annual growth rate of the games industry from 2003 - 2006 exceeded 17%, while the US economy as a whole only saw a 4% increase. And, from a personal perspective, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fun, interesting field to work in.

Long story short, sitting up all night jamming on Rock Band is not only granting you mad drumming skills, but is also prepping you for a potential job in a white-hot technology/entertainment industry.

Note to self: put Gamertag on resume.

Here’s some other fun data, stolen directly from the ESA’s press release/report:

• The US entertainment software industry directly employs more than 24,000 individuals and indirectly supports, with an average salary of $92,300 in 2006.
• The computer and video game industry’s value added to U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2006 was $3.8 billion.
• In 2003-04 and 2005-06, the industry’s contribution to real growth exceeded its share of GDP by more than four to one.
• The entertainment software industry directly and indirectly employs more than 80,000 people in 31 states; and, U.S. industry employees received total compensation of $2.2 billion.
• The report states that California is the largest employer of computer and video game personnel in the nation, accounting for approximately 40 percent of total industry employment nationwide.
• Virginia’s computer and video game industry grew by 552 percent in 2006, more than 172 times as fast as the commonwealth’s overall growth.
• Washington state ranked second nationally in computer and video game personnel in 2006, with 9,284 direct and indirect employees at more than 59 facilities across the state.
• New York’s entertainment software companies directly and indirectly employ 4,415 individuals at more than 25 facilities across the state.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 2:54 pm and is filed under General, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.