Is switching companies before shipping frowned upon in games industry?

Amazon
f8ckleetco

Go to company page Amazon

f8ckleetco
Dec 16, 2021 19 Comments

For example say you’ve only been there one year and the game hasn’t shipped yet

Would future employers not want to hire you?

Or is it common for people to hop

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 TOP 19 Comments
  • If it happens once nobody is going to judge. If your resume is a string of 1 year stints that raises some red flags. It's also a benefit to you to be able to talk about your experience shipping a game (especially if you don't have that yet)
    Dec 16, 2021 0
  • Naughty Dog
    WWcd74

    Naughty Dog

    WWcd74
    Shipped game definitely adds more to your resume than pure yoe alone. Plus you'll lose out on a pretty sizeable shipping bonus in case of many studios. So would recommend to stay put till ship unless having a really miserable time.
    Dec 17, 2021 3
    • Meta
      somebook

      Go to company page Meta

      somebook
      What’s the shipping bonus like?
      Dec 17, 2021
    • Naughty Dog
      WWcd74

      Naughty Dog

      WWcd74
      ND has more emphasis on the annual bonus which is around 40-50% of base while shipping is only 20%. My base is 115k so I'd still wanna stay for shipping if it's only a few months away. I do know there are other studios though like Infinity Ward who even give 100% shipping bonuses so in that case it'd be worth it more.
      Dec 17, 2021
  • Hulu
    felon

    Go to company page Hulu

    felon
    Wow this thread is a fascinating peek behind the curtain into the gaming industry. Shipping bonuses sounds nuts
    Dec 17, 2021 1
    • It’s not so nuts when you consider that

      1)the shipping bonus happens when you ship, which could happen once every 2-4 years (ex. CoD studios) or even longer (ex.Rockstar)

      2)that some studios don’t give any stock, or give meager amounts
      Dec 17, 2021
  • New / Creative
    [__]

    New Creative

    PRE
    Rockstar Games
     [__]
    Shipping experience and bonus is huge. I'm at Rockstar and the bonuses for shipped projects is usually 50-100k+ based on position compared to the 5-20k bonuses off years
    Dec 17, 2021 5
    • New / Creative
      [__]

      New Creative

      PRE
      Rockstar Games
       [__]
      So for example this year my bonus was 10k pre tax in an "off" year. Sadly, I don't know what my bonus will be when we ship out next title cause no one really talks numbers but it generally sounds like high 5 figures maybe 6.

      MP3 bonuses were sadly low due to sales but gta5 and rdr2 bonuses were huge for salary staff.
      Dec 28, 2021
    • New
      xRRb13gl

      New

      xRRb13gl
      My GTA5 bonus the year it shipped looked good on paper, but failed to take into account the months of 90+ hour workweeks. In the end, I would've made significantly more had I gotten OT for all of those extra hours we were required to work. The bonus from RDR1 was only slightly better than the one I got for MP3.

      Bonuses after that initial GTA5 release one were trash while being given the excuse of "we didn't ship" even though shark cards were basically printing money for the company. All of these bonuses were year end, too; we never got any sort of special shipping bonus.

      Somehow, certain people always seemed to get good bonuses regardless of shipping that year or not. Seems moreso that the company likes to use it as an excuse when it suits them.
      Dec 29, 2021
  • Unity / R&D
    alvinez

    Go to company page Unity R&D

    PRE
    WP Engine
     alvinez
    If you care about your credit in the game, you'll be likely be busted down to "additional work" or something similar. For me, nobody really cared. I just went into detail on my contributions during later interviews.
    Dec 17, 2021 0