Hah, 65K would be for a REEEEEEALLLLY low end guy. 100K for people with a few years experience is pretty much where I would expect that salary to be at, without thinking about all the other pieces of the pie, like you said. 36Mil doesn’t go far. that said, you do have to take in the part of the world to some degree so those figures will certain be more or less meaningful, depending on the region.
Recently there’s a lot of talk about games overtaking movies as far as there being money to produce a game vs. a movie and the payback. I that’s starting to ring true when you see these big games and their ability draw prominent actors in. It’s a really good time to be a gamer.