[timavr]

The problem with that approach as in any negotiation that in order to be successful, you need to put your job on the line every time you go to negotiate to have the maximum leverage. It is all fine and dandy if you win every time, but if you go and they don't budge and your stay, your leverage is basically gone.

People early in their careers have flexibility of moving around, but if you have mortgage, kids, family or need to take care of your parents, this strategy carries a lot of external costs.

For games speficaly it is nealry impossible to negotiate meaningfully because every postion is budgeted ahead of time, including salary increases. By that I mean if someone asks for 5% increase, they are basically negotiating against spreadsheet, not human across from them. The best one can do is to hit just under the cut-off line.

On top of that, employee providing different "value" to the company is just a myth, because if someone was literally providing value to multi billion company they would be paid millions. For most people their value is just replacement market value.

If people want a meaninful compensation in games, they have to be an executive or creating new revenue stream for the company.