Talented artists used the software of their choosing. Then internal tools converted their output into a game specific format.
Game studios do not allow this, even if they are using a commercial engine such as Unity 3D which can convert from any tool to their own format.
The reason being that assets need to be shared between artists and it doesn’t make sense for half of them to be in 3D Studio Max and the other half in Maya. Every artist is required to stick to the same tool.
In the case of non-commercial in-house engines this is even more strict, since allowing artists to use whatever they want means the in-house R&D team must make plug-ins for all software the artists will be using.
Instead of taking the time and money to do this, it is more cost-effective and time-efficient to just tell the artists, “Our in-house tools/plug-ins work with Maya—if you don’t have Maya skills then we won’t hire you.”
In my experience, Maya is the most commonly used among games. I have always used it, my company (tri-Ace) uses it, Square Enix uses it, DICE uses it, etc.
The genre has no meaning—FPS, RPG, Action, whatever. It has nothing to do with the genre and likely everything to do with the ease in creating plug-ins and exporters, an area where Maya is known to trump 3D Studio Max.
I have heard numerous first-hand testimonials from people who started with 3D Studio Max and switched to Maya about how much easier it is to develop plug-ins and exporters.
It may also be related to licensing prices.
L. Spiro