In the early 2000s in college I wrote a basic terrain renderer in C++ and OpenGL. It randomly generated some textured terrain, and had some basic features like you could move the camera and look around. Nothing super impressive.
A few months later I landed a 16-month internship on a team writing an OpenGL ES driver. There were 160 applicants, but the hiring manager said I was the only applicant who had actually played around with OpenGL.
I think Gamepass is a factor - it affects suppply, no question - but the raw supply of all games seems as high as it’s ever been. One could argue the latter has led to the former; there are so many titles being released regularly now that Gamepass and perpetual Steam sales can happen.
In college one summer I worked on a car factory line, alternating between morning/afternoon and "late shifts" that ended around 11 PM.
I had to commute to the factory, and I felt my driving was dangerous in two ways. First, I would drive recklessly fast to get to my 6:00 AM shift start because company policy was that if you were late 3 times you were fired. Second, after my late shift ended, I would be driving home exhausted at night on quiet + dark 2-lane highways.
I probably had more near-miss accidents during this 3 month period than the next 15 years as a driver.
A few months later I landed a 16-month internship on a team writing an OpenGL ES driver. There were 160 applicants, but the hiring manager said I was the only applicant who had actually played around with OpenGL.
It was a great job and I learned a ton.