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The video game industry is the one of the fastest growing industries of recent times. It could be argued that it is worth more than even the film industry. As Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft compete more and more vehemently with each new console release, so the video game creators find themselves under more and more pressure to make sure their games are bought and released by one of the aforementioned trio.

This increase in pressure means that for game designing companies to stay afloat they must compete at the highest levels. They require only the best individuals to work for them, thus making it much harder for anyone to gain a career in the industry today. To combat this rise in standards, universities and colleges around the globe have started to offer video game degrees and courses. These courses educate people with what, years ago, they would have learned whilst on the job. The plan, presumably, is to give people who take these courses a head start and a better chance of landing a career in the industry.

This does however lead to some issues. First of all, video games appeal greatly to children, teenagers, and also young adults. When considering the possibility of going to University, these impressionable youngsters may stumble across a video game course and their eyes will light up and their imaginations will run wild with thoughts of playing games for a living and being part of some fantasy that makes video game creation out to be far more exciting than it possibly is. This has led to a lot of people choosing a video game related course, which in turn has created an overly saturated market full of qualified individuals. No matter which discipline you want to specialise in: Design, Art or Programming, you can be sure there are many more lined up as well.

Stemming from this over-saturation, are the thousands graduates whose futures now look a little bleak. They have completed their niche degree and gone into competition with millions of other prospective game designers, concept artists or animators, and if they don't land their dream job, they are left with a very specific degree that only leads to a tiny handful of jobs. The individual who holds a video game degree is, realistically, barely ahead of anyone else who may not have the degree but has real talent and creativity.

The competition levels are so high these days that something has been lost in the creation of new video games. One gets a sense that there is less enjoyment or less freedom of thought

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