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How Do You Become A Console Game Programmer?
sknja writes "I am currently a junior in college and am about to begin the last 2 years of a 5-year electrical engineering program. I have a concentration in computer engineering, and a minor in Japanese. Right now, my life revolves around classes, video games, and learning Japanese. Since I am passionate about all three, I want to try and combine the three, my goal being to become an engineer working on game consoles. Since the end of school is drawing near, what steps should I take toward achieving this goal? Do gaming companies ever have co-op or internship positions open?" Is Japanese a practical or useful skill in this context, and how should/do game companies value internships and programming degrees vs. practical experience on game mods?
It's hard to get into because there are so many bad programmers out there. As a console programmer who used to work as a programmer outside of the games industry, I've seen that the video game companies do tend to screen harder for competent programmers. This doesn't mean that there aren't any bad games programmers, just fewer on average.
My recommendation would be to first keep up with game development web-sites, like gamasutra and flipcode (two of my favorites). Also, you should be able to demonstrate your interest in doing video games by having done some of your own at home.
Making video games comprises of several fields of expertise from a programmer's standpoint. Graphics, physics/collision, AI, tools, etc. You should know a little about each one and perhaps know alot about one of them.