But Are Video Games for Old People?

With all due respect, I believe that in 2025 anyone who thinks Video Games are something abstruse, out of date and harmful to young (and slightly less young) minds is an utter fool. Being led to believe that videogames are junk for old nostalgics means living with your head buried in the sand, unaware of the fact that the companies dedicated to them drive the turnover of related sectors; moreover, the socio-cultural impact of Video Games understood as a medium for the masses, an emblem of Pop Culture in its positive sense and capable of looking to the future, is now established.

But let’s take a step back and ask the queen of questions, the one our parents and uncles whisper during holiday gatherings around the table when they see the little cousins and the older cousins (spoiler: me!) challenge each other with banana peels and ink-spitting jellyfish in Mario Kart: can you make a living, earn money, real money, thanks to video games? I know it sounds absurd, but it still happens today, just as it did back then.

Recently, I came across reading on some specialized sites and forums a string of back-and-forths between users who work in the industry, including those who carry on their hardworking shoulders startups with indie titles in development, and I realized that there is still a huge amount of misinformation precisely among those who approach the production and development of a video game, even before our somewhat older relatives. It may seem like a contradiction in terms, but in such a layered world, where publishing a video game at all costs by complying with tight timelines becomes a priority over the actual quality and, above all, completeness of the game itself (see the case of Cyberpunk 2077, to name a high-profile one), it goes without saying that clearing things up becomes the first, necessary step to find one’s way in this labyrinthine dungeon.

Basandoci su una fonte reliable in the current Italian market such as Randstad, in 2023 it was estimated that a video game developer earns per year 30,000 euros gross. Of course, there is a significant difference between an indie developer and a senior who works for well-established companies at European level, for example, but the figure is indicative: one can make a living working with video games, it is a profession that does not have a maximum or minimum age, it requires skills very specific that can be acquired through study programs and specialist master’s degrees. In simple terms, it belongs to the category of professions of the future, accessible both to the young graduate and to the “old” game designer expert in 1980s arcade games, who in those years devoured Pac Man on a daily basis and hurled two-hundred-lira coins like shuriken into the coin slots of the cabinet machines: nowadays both figures are able to contribute their skills to the industry.

Gli esempi are many: think of Baldo: The Guardian Owls by Naps Team, a purely Italian studio that has landed on Switch and beyond, or even our own Milestone, which has dominated the racing genre well beyond our borders for many years. And this is just a small part of a world that is no longer the preserve of a few nerds; the days are long gone when video games were synonymous with dark, dusty basements and 486 PCs with VGA cards squeezed like lemons to make the latest Doom mod run: the revenues of Konami and From Software, to name a pillar now known all over the world, and the “new” coming forward at a gallop with the same pride as its spectral stallions translated onto the screen (Elden Ring, is that you?), speak volumes about how profitable the video game market is; consequently, key figures such as developers, narrative designers (narrative designer sounds cooler, I know, but that’s what this is), special effects artists, level designers and many others become indispensable.

Rubbish for old people? I’d say quite the opposite: supply and demand go hand in hand with a growing trend that cannot be ignored, thanks to the generational turnover among consumers and the spasmodic search for memorabilia, the cult object that collectors sift through on the many specialized sites, including The Games Market itself, a platform specialized in such an industry context.

Is all that glitters gold? Obviously not, as you can imagine. Disinformation about everything related to video games is no longer at the medieval levels of the years immediately following 1990, when torches and pitchforks were raised shouting on the news against the violence of Doom and Carmageddon, responsible for poisoning the minds of boys ready to shoot people and run over old ladies at pedestrian crossings. But there is still a long way to go, starting with the elevation of a profession, even before a consumer medium: too often groups of independent developers find themselves having to make do with crumbs to publish their games, despite platforms like Steam having in fact legitimized the exclusivity of the elite, allowing even smaller titles to have their own slice of the market and win approval, waiting for larger audiences and spotlights with a brighter light.

We are only at the beginning of the new era in videogames, and it is important, if not essential, that outreach and honesty from industry professionals move in the same direction so that, at the next Christmas dinner, parents and uncles no longer ask whether you can make a living working in the videogame industry, but instead join the community by messing around with the new Super Mario.

Developed right by the grandson sitting next to him, perhaps.