Emphasis on 'pre-tax.' I get that you don't make much money and have clearly never been self employed because they get fucked in the bum by taxes.
And that money does actually have to be invested into his game production first, otherwise it's just fraud. And we know that at the bare minimum they're paying for a programmer and an artist. And depending on where he lives the flat, bare minimum COL can be around 1800 USD for rent and utilities. Which is splitting the medium between the most expensive places in the US and bumfuck nowhere, USA. I'm going to assume the creator of a porn game probably lives in a more expensive, left leaning part of the world and not Conservativia.
And of course there's still health insurance to consider. And any other monthly expenses that might come up- car payments, car insurance, upkeep, food. They have to invest in their own retirement, that also costs.
A company with an operating budget of 10,000 USD a month can spend that in the blink of an eye. They're not actually taking 10,000 USD home, they're probably taking less than half that home.
