when all is said and done, do the devs [not publishers] make much money? how about the people working for it?

I always wondered about this.

it varries a lot, developers usually don't get much money.  The programmers typically get considerably less compared to what they could at another job, artists dont' get much either.  The developers as a whole company don't get much compared to the publisher either, but the publisher is the one taking the bigger risk.

Gamasutra has an annual salary survey for game developers broken down by general positions (programmers, design leads, animation leads, sound designers, etc.).  You can seek it out; I'd say if you are with a stable, established developer you can make a good living, starting in the 50s and 60s and earning up to the low 100s (US$).  Of course there are other careers where you can make a lot more, but that's decent money for artists.  On the other hand, there are a lot of quality of life issues to consider, as with a lot of companies they have an ingrained culture of required crunchtimes (which is reflective of bad management and organization, IMO)... hence common parlance such as "EA Widows."

As for how profitable individual games are, companies don't tend to release that information unless it's a blockbuster hit.

With the American economy heading for the tubes, pretty soon I don't think it'll be very profitable.  The more I think about it, the more I feel like the gaming industry is heading for another collapse.  There'll always be room for shitty games but the kind of games we care about are at risk.

They make what normal people make.   If you have a bachelors/masters in any computer related field you're going to be making 60-80k average after some experience, doesn't matter if you're working for EA, that doesn't entitle you to more money.  Those who make more like in any other business are either in unique positions (luck) or have taken the risk of starting their own studios/business. That's how it is with any industry, law/technology/medical/anything/etc - if you manage to sustain your own succesful business you will obviously make more money.

They don't make less either, with the kind of skillset they have they can work at a variety of different industries, they dont *have* to be videogame developers, they have many opportunities, it's not like the videogame companies can say "ok we're going to pay you crap money just because"  they can't, they have to pay whatever people with that skillset earn.  That's the beauty of being in a technology field, I got my bachelors originally in Networking/IT, went back took a few more classes and went for electronic engineering, it's not like the classes required are drastically different, I had already taken 80% of the shit I needed to take, they're very interchangable, you just specialize a little bit more here and there. It's not like being a lawyer and then switching to being a doctor, that requires you to start from scratch, switching to another technology field does not. 

So anyway, my point is don't buy the developer drama about how they aren't payed, it's bullshit, due to the type of business that they are in it is IMPOSSIBLE for them not be payed competitively.

Moral of this emofag story: Torr's mom is waaaay more profitable than the videogames industry.