Is there such a thing as 'Old' people in game studios?
polycounter lvl 18
I'm in my mid thirties and been working in the gaming industry for 10+ years now at three very different game dev studios and I've never noticed anyone who looks over the age of 40 
I think it's partly down to 'big' gaming studios still being relatively young, I guess for anyone who has worked in the industry for 30+ years they came from a time when games were made by 1 or 2 people so perhaps in a few decades older people in studios will become more of a thing. On the other hand I often hear that as people in the industry start to create a family, the whole crunch time and stress is something they steer away from and take their skills elsewhere so that they can devote their evenings to their families. Not entirely sure but I'm guessing that's much less of an issue these days, that's the impression I get. Another possibility is that the lifestyle (sitting down all day staring at a light) destroys eyeballs and spines, so nobody over the age of 40 ever is able to work anymore?
I just can't imagine ever being away from making games, still love it and I want to be doing it in my sixties if possible but I never ever even see anyone in their 40's, never mind sixties.
I think it's partly down to 'big' gaming studios still being relatively young, I guess for anyone who has worked in the industry for 30+ years they came from a time when games were made by 1 or 2 people so perhaps in a few decades older people in studios will become more of a thing. On the other hand I often hear that as people in the industry start to create a family, the whole crunch time and stress is something they steer away from and take their skills elsewhere so that they can devote their evenings to their families. Not entirely sure but I'm guessing that's much less of an issue these days, that's the impression I get. Another possibility is that the lifestyle (sitting down all day staring at a light) destroys eyeballs and spines, so nobody over the age of 40 ever is able to work anymore?
I just can't imagine ever being away from making games, still love it and I want to be doing it in my sixties if possible but I never ever even see anyone in their 40's, never mind sixties.
Replies
seriously, I feel there are more people now who are in their 40s It seems like people born in the mid 70s are the first generation where a considerable number became game devs, maybe because they were the first to grow up with home computers like Amiga, Ataris and early PCs that actually allowed you to be creative in your own 4 walls. Before that it was much harder to get started if you weren't a CompSci or art student. I'm pretty sure in 10 years there will be more 50 year olds.
There are a few people over 40 in our startup dev, some older than me, but that's mostly because we chose to cherry-pick seasoned pros. And those we've worked well with in the past. We also have 20-somethings and 30-somethings.
Older devs tend to avoid crunch because it's dumb, we've done our research, look it up. You could say seasoned devs are jaded, but not in my experience. My cohorts are all really excited about what they do.
Whatever, old people should just die already.
When I was at Microsoft / Ensemble Studio there were many late 40's and 50 people. But I wouldn't call them old.
There are quite a few people here more retro than myself. Games is a new industry so its to be expected. I'd hazard a guess and say the most retro people will generally be coders as that's where games started before artists got involved. You'll probably get older managers and producers also, as they can come from other industries.
True story, about a year or 2 ago, we had a concept artist who retired from here. First time I've ever personally heard of somebody retiring out of the games industry :P
I feel like the industry has just aged alongside me. When I started out in 2002, the bulk of devs seemed to be in their 20's. We went out a lot and did what 20 year olds do, we also did a lot of crunch.
Now most people have families and want to spend time with them rather than being stuck at work crunching their way through projects. As others have said, work/life balance becomes more important as you get older. Making games is still fun, but its not the novelty it was when starting out. I think this plus the benefit of experience makes us more realistic with our schedules and ambitions for a project. Our quality bar hasn't dropped, we just plan for what can actually be done in the time and so generally get home at a decent time to enjoy other aspects of life.