Wow,

Lets just tell everyone that dont ever make a game unless you are rich and know everyone on the inside. So the end result will be we get the same rehashed games that seem to be happening now? Evolution is important to this industry. If we tell young people to give up are we really looking towards the future?

For those young or new to game making. Start simple. From 2-D game programming (Cell phones, PDA's, Etc.) to modding on current game platforms such as Unreal Tournaments and Half Life 2 games offerings. Learn the technology and keep up with it because its always changing. Put simple games and ideas out there to show your talents. The more you can show off your potential the more likely you will get a response or some kind of position. It might not be the lead designer but even starting as a beta tester could help you on your way up. Dont expect lightning to strike. It almost never happens (but does) and if it does you will be limited (least in the first venture) until you have more experience.

Education. Although self taught is not a bad thing, it is almost a must to have some sort of programming degree and education. Its no cakewalk but a degree will pay off in the end.

I'm surprised this was not mentioned in a thread about potential hobbyist development for next-gen systems:

Cell Software Development Kit and Simulator:

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/topics/cell?Open&S_TACT=105AGX01&S_CMP=HP&ca=dgr-dw01awintrocell

You need Fedora Core 4 to use it, but it's basically a full programming environment for Cell, that runs on x86. Obviously the simulation means that your code will run at a fraction of the performance of actual Cell hardware, but it is apparently cycle-accurate, which should let you determine how your code would run on actual hardware. There's also a pretty good pipeline analysis tool for the SPEs, sample code, etc.

With this, and nVidia's cG Toolkit etc., you can have a reasonably close approximation of the PS3 dev environment on your PC. Or at least, you could gain experience that would transfer readily to an actual kit.

If you want to wager that a PS3 linux kit will be available for homebrew, this would give you a big headstart. The code you write on the above SDK will transfer and compile without modification on Cell hardware, like PS3 (IBM used this very simulator for a long long time before they had Cell hardware available, to bring the software development up to speed).

Kind of funny that potentially the most challenging next-gen hardware (but then again, potentially also the most rewarding) is also the one that is most open to hobbyists.