EA, about 15-20 years ago, was paying $35k for programmers, and working them ~80 hours a week. It was so bad that EA lost a lawsuit that cost them about $90k per impacted employee, since the courts ruled that they were being treated as hourly employees, not salaried.
That is to say, due to “passion”, entry level game programmers aren’t making much more than $40k a year. They have no negotiating power going in, since there’s a hundred others who will willingly take their place at the low wages, just to be in the videogame industry.
