dsmart
4729
No. And it never does. In fact, there is a separate line item in the filing that shows those. You did read it though, right?
You mean the 6,000 pound pension plan? That’s included in the £236k Directors’ Remuneration which is what I assume kedaha was converting to USD.
Not particularly SC related, but I’m surprised at how low the 1% line is for the UK. Your 142K seems to be a little off from what I Googled (e.g., ~162K) (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax), but it’s mostly right.
As an American, that’s surprisingly low. At the current exchange rate, 162K comes out to 207K, which is well off of the US 1% cutoff of 288K.
On the whole “this is remarkably high”, my view is distorted by the industry I know best: corporate law. A starting associate salary at a “biglaw” law firm, straight out of school, is 180K USD, not including bonus. There are literally 1000+ of these starting positions across the country. Is a directorship in a 400+ person company at 300K (USD) that unusual?
wilykat
4732
Speaking from the Silicon Valley bubble: 300K cash would be unusual, 300K total comp including equity is not unreasonable. But that’s here; I don’t know if a comparable position in Austin would pay as well. And I think the games industry tends to be underpaid because so many people want to be in it.
dsmart
4733
In the videogame industry, hell yeah. The “Director” position would be the equivalent of either CEO or studio head here in the US. And those roles tend to peak at around $125K depending on the studio. Here is the 2014 Gamasutra salary guide. There are others, but I’m on mobile and can’t be arsed to dig them up.
Regardless, in the UK, and the region (Manchester) that F42-UK is based, a director for a video game company making £235K is unheard of. Especially in the UK. Go take a look at p35 of Frontier Dev’s financials to see how much David Braben is making: £180K. And he’s not running a 100% crowd-funded company.
All Chris has done with backer money, is made him and his friends and family rich. That’s it.
That company (Frontier) appears to have 3 director level positions, each making ~200K (base + bonus) for a total director compensation of ~600K. The company has 280 employees.
How big is the F42-UK operation? It’s hard for me to make a comparison, not knowing that number. Admittedly, compensation is more than just adding up the number of employees, but it is a place to start. At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters if the operation is crowd-funded, once it hits this size. You can’t run a ~400 employee game studio on volunteer labor–you’ve got to compete for the same employees as more traditionally funded studios.
As to the Gamesutra report, I may have missed it, but I don’t see director-level-specific info there.
Again, from my corporate law bubble, I’ve got a bunch of useless baby attorneys running around at 200K+ compensation, so I’m personally not mortified by the salary, but I fully admit it’s apples and oranges.
I’ve no doubt of this, but at the end of the day it won’t matter. Their legalese and hive of attorneys have rather bulletproof ToS and funding agreement plans which pretty much expressly state you are entitled to fuck all for your faith and devotion even if it implodes.
Not saying it’s right, just stating the facts as I understand them from my limited knowledge of this absurd spectacle.
Much of the ‘wealth’ in the UK is in the form of assets, not salaries, and much of the income derives from this. A high cost of living and low incomes (compared to the US) is somewhat compensated for by the NHS and a massive growth in house-prices that have enriched the home-owning generations of the past.
Sucks to be young and asset-poor in the UK, though.
dsmart
4737
At last count, it was around 275
Yeah, it is.
kedaha
4738
It does, my bad.
I typoed, it’s 162k alright. I had a look at HMRCs 2014-2015 breakdown of income tax and £236k would have put Erin in the top 0.3% of earners. Not bad, ey?
$180k = £140k. That would put you in the top 1.1% of earners in the UK or rather, straight out of law school slots you into the top 356,000 earners in the UK and pays you more than a Hospital Consultant with 19 years+ experience.
The legal profession is structured very differently here (especially in the lower rungs), but that’s way, way more than starting commercial lawyers would get here, even at Magic Circle firms, which is more like £70k to £80k pre-tax (with a London cost of living, mind).
dsmart
4740
My Day 2 coverage of the Star Citizen disaster is online. Words fail me. But I did my best.
But your baby lawyers are straight out of 4-year university, not 4+3 like American lawyers, with the additional barriers to entry that the extra time, costs, and testing requirements impose.
Sure. I’m not saying there aren’t reasons for it (though in practice I think most baby lawyers here do a one-year LPC course after their undergrad degree). Just that the pay scales are very different. See also doctors.
kedaha
4743
I couldn’t believe how bad NHS salary scales were (from top to bottom) compared to those in Ireland. The first 4 bands don’t look like they could ever be a living wage for someone.
I can’t help wondering if Dual Universe won’t be out sooner, and be better than Star Citizen, with less than 5% of CIG’s budget. Time will tell…
https://www.dualthegame.com/
stusser
4746
I don’t want that crap either. I want Wing Commander, Tie-Fighter, or Freespace. I want a single-player campaign with a story.
dsmart
4747
Hard to say. I had high hopes for Infinity Battlespace as well.
dsmart
4748
Then you’re going to have to settle for Star Wars Battlefront II I’m afraid. Them’s the breaks.
