I am starting my Physics degree next year. Maybe I could get into game developing...

UCAS states about 185 when you search 'computer games' on their website probably more closely realted to them:

http://search.ucas.co.uk/cgi-bin/hsrun/search/search/search.hjx;start=search.HsSearch.run?y=2009

Also @Shameless, they did stay in school else they would have never made it to Uni.

Sociology and I live in Cornwall where the situation's particularly bad. I've applied for everything I'm qualified for that's become available in my town since I finished. That's just two jobs! Employers simply aren't hiring at the moment. Hopefully when I've passed my driving test I'll be able to find something further afield. I lived in London for a bit and had my house set on fire and was threatened with rape and murder. I'm not planning on going back!

It's not just video games degrees, it's any degree which is too specific (I recall some degree called "paper engineering")...

More general degrees will give you a more well-rounded skill set, and most importantly will prepare you to learn anything you need to learn. In this fast changing world, any specific technology you learn to work with may be obsolete in a few years. General and learning skills are eternal though.

Instead of a "video games" degree, take a computer science / computer engineering degree, or design or whatever you want to do. Instead of a "paper engineering" degree, take a "materials" or "chemistry" degree, etc etc.

@ ferret1603: Thanks for the link.

@Shameless and sieanr: I was just speaking about those who just have an undergraduate degree in history...but haven't just that degree won't get you a job and a teacher or professor as ferret1603 pointed out. You typically have to do a year at teachers college to be a school teacher, and to be a professor requires a Masters and PhD in History.

Any of the engineering degrees will get you a job. I got a degree in Software Engineering. The key part of that is the engineering if you want to be in demand for employment.

Seriously the old joke has more than a little truth in it now.
What questions you will ask based on your degree:
Science - Why does it work?
Engineering - How does it work?
Liberal arts - Do you want fries with that?
Psychology - Do you know why you want fries with that?

A degree outside a technical field tends to put you on the standard track of going through several different careers through your working life, with each change typically being a time of uncertainty and stress.

When times are good and new companies are starting up there are more HR director jobs to be found. When things slow down those positions stagnate as no one leaves them that has them.

It's always best to be part of the talent pool and not part of the infrastructure pool.

Don't skimp by with a technical degree if you want to be a successful engineer in the games industry. Get a real CS degree, and don't snooze through math (you'd think it'd be impossible, but there are major universities that offer CS degrees and don't require any math beyond the basics, and some logic -- CS isn't all math, after all, and frankly some CS focus areas, like networking, AI, UI, and natural language, don't require much math).

The trouble is that many of the game specific degrees are taught at... sub-par schools. It has nothing to do with the concept of the degree itself. Having in-depth knowledge of everything a real college degree would cover will enhance your skillset in ways you can't even fathom as your career progresses

If you don't know what a dot product, a cross product, and a normal are, you aren't going to get a job in the (console) games industry, even as a designer or artist (well... you can, but you won't progress until you garner some knowledge). You might pass as a QA/tester person... for a while, until your employer replaces you with someone who can understand what a surface normal is.

The web-based games industry is a heckuva lot more relaxed. It also employs more people. The console games industry is cutthroat. You won't move past the ranks of folks who get hired+"let go" on a per project basis unless you are a serious asset.

You should pay attention to what the console games industry needs, as well, if you want in:

* Technically-oriented artists are in HUGE demand in the games industry.

* Designers... just happen. You don't get hired as a designer, unless you've got some experience, typically. New designers actually tend to come from QA/test departments. In other words... they are proven, knowledgable gamers, with an understanding of the development life cycle of a console game.

* (Good) AI engineers are always in demand. AI isn't hard to understand, but it seems to be real hard to be good at. Academic AI, and AI in performance gaming don't tend to mesh well, so... good AI programmers are not only hard to find, they're hard to spot. Specializing in AI does seem to help, since specialists usually realize that academic AI doesn't apply easily, and they get started early thinking "outside the box" of academia.

* Network engineers are popular, and in demand, although this may change. Performance networking requires some app-specific trickery you won't be taught in school, because different networking schemes work better for different kinds of applications/games.

* Not to knock graphics, but graphics programmers are relatively commonplace. Get another skill if you like graphics stuff, in addition to your graphics know-how.

* Compiler/assembler specialists are... awesome. And rare.

* Database programmers are handy in certain types of games, like MMOs. Not in general, however. Databases is the king of specialties, anywhere else in CS, really. Not games though. Choose wisely.

* Good software engineers -- i.e. people who understand putting a product out the door, and engineering it before they author it, are invaluable. Take some courses on planning engineering projects. This is something non-CS (or many CS even) folks tend to not have the skills or knowledge for... and thats a problem. Not having software engineering skills will delay your career in the schedule-driven console industry.

Last, but not least, as an engineer, OMG don't come to a console games industry interview without knowing how to write a program in C AND C++.  If you are the world's greatest Java-master, great... go work in the web industry.  Python and Lua are helpful for designers and engineers alike.  Any scripting/programming skill at all will help with understanding high-end modelling/animation package scripting, as well.

Agreed, but unfortunately in the Western world (at least in Europe), Engineering is a big no for most people because it requires maths and physics. As "we know", maths and physics are evil especially for girls. It's not the case in the East though, where being good at maths is seen as required for most students.

In my computer science/engineering course, there were 5-10% girls. In my girlfriend's computer science course (she's from China), it was about 50-50.