Making a Living Playing Video Games

Posted on January 13, 2005

It is still a rare occurrence, but some gamers are starting to reap decent monetary rewards from their countless hours of game play. A recent article by New York Times writer Eric A. Taub looks at a few gamers that are getting paid for their performance. These players include twenty year-old Matt Leto of Allen, Texas, who recently won $20,000 at the Halo world finals in San Francisco for the second straight year and Johnathan Wendel who has won over $300,000 from gaming awards and endorsements. The number of gamers collecting enough prize and endorsement money to making a living will greatly increase as the number of gaming awards and endorsements climb over the next several years. Hank Jeong, president of World Cyber Games in Seoul, told Times journalist Taub that there area already 1,000 kids in Korea that make a living playing video games. There are already several gaming leagues emerging like The Global Gaming League, Cyberathlete Professional League and Major League Gaming.

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