The US may soon join the UK in having a shortage of skilled video game labor. The AP reports that fewer college students are receiving computer-related degrees, an ill-timed problem when baby boomers are now starting to retire. The Computing Research association found a 20% drop this year in students completing a bachelors in IT fields, and enrollment in undergrad computer science degrees is 50% lower than five years ago.

Specifically within the gaming industry, EA's vice-president of talent acquisition says the company is working more directly with colleges to recruit, offer internships and "shape curriculum." Both EA and Microsoft express that many students aren't graduating with the skills needed by the company. Oh, come on, everyone needs drama majors!

With THQ announcing a $35.3 million dollar loss this past fiscal year, it's time for some people to get the ax. Not executives, mind you, but the little people. Gamasutra reports that CEO Brian Farrell stated 200 people will lose their jobs, but that most of them are employees working on "last gen" platforms like the PS2. On the bright side, the company plans to add about 300 new employees this fiscal year to "key studios" working on "key products."

The culling may have already started after rumors last week that members of THQ's Rainbow and Sandblast studios were laid off. To prevent people from losing their jobs in the future, CFO Colin Slade says that THQ is instituting a four-stage greenlight process to ensure better quality (and apparently better sales) from the publisher's titles.

[Via GameDaily]

A job posting for an Online Gameplay Programmer to join "the team behind the critically acclaimed AAA titles God of War and God of War II" (oh, just say it: the team developing God of War III) suggests that Kratos' next romp in Neverland may require some expertise in networking protocols and architectures. You know, give the ol' Ghost of Sparta a playable sidekick, some comic relief. Recall that at the God of War II launch, Cory Balrog (this was before he bounced from SCEA) said co-op was being considered for the third console game, at least, in theory: "If we can do something unique with [co-op], yeah, but it is really an early exploration of that in my head really. It's not even a discussion with the team." Obviously, Barlog got around to planting that seed before he departed.

The listing does include a rather ambiguous disclaimer though, which potentially disavows the job altogether: "Please be advised that the following job description may not reflect a position that is currently available. This job description may exist to simply gather interest, and may or may not ever become an approved open position." Whatever, we all know that next-gen AAA ain't "next-gen AAA" without online co-op, right?

Capcom USA's looking to expand their family of merry workers a bit, with a few job openings posted on their official blog. Along with the posting, the team took a minute to discuss just what they have in the pipeline, with a whopping fifteen titles currently in development.

Many of those titles have already been announced -- such as Dark Void, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, Commando 3, Rocketmen, Talisman, MotoGP, and Okami on the Wii -- but more than half of the titles have not yet been revealed, which may prove scintillating to any potential applicants. Check out the official Capcom USA blog for more details on the job openings, and how to apply.

Are you the kind of vault dweller not wanting to seek life outside your safe vault dwelling but still longing for excitement? Bethesda is hiring Quality Assurance (QA) testers for the upcoming Fallout 3. Sure, you get to play the game before anyone else, but as an added incentive, Bethesda's Ashley Cheng notes that top testers usually get pulled to be interns for the company.

The developer diary for Fallout 3 has also been updated to give a profile for the Brotherhood of Steel, as well as show off some concept art for the game that you can also peruse in our gallery below. Fallout 3 is still slated for a Fall 2008 release.

Perhaps there is life after World of Warcraft after all, and it is likely just as addicting. Various job listings for Blizzard list a "Next-Gen MMO" as the project for which they are hiring. Though many forum posters guessed this was just a way for the company to be coy about needing extra manpower for the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, company man "Drysc" (38th post) confirmed that it is not for the Lich King but, as it says in the job listing, "it is an unannounced Next-Gen MMO ... And that doesn't mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either."

Is anyone really surprised that Blizzard would be staying in the MMO market, given their first entry into the genre makes more money than self-replicating Nintendo DS systems? Of course, given their lengthy development cycles (that have been promised to remain intact following its merger with Activision), it may be years, if not a decade, before we see anything from it.

[Via GamePro]

Laziness is both the bane and best friend of anyone in the job hunt. As many of our readers seems to be interested in the game industry, many of our readers must also know that it's a difficult industry to break into. Job hunting is a difficult process, often resulting in dead ends, and sometimes it's just easier to kick back than search through one more listing.

Luckily for the lazy, game designer and blogger Yehuda has done all of the hard work. Over two blog posts, he's compiled a frighteningly exhaustive list of worldwide game industry positions open right now. The list runs the gamut from media positions to lead programming jobs -- internships, full-time, part-time and everything in between. Since these positions were listed when he first did the research, potential applicants should be warned that not all the jobs might still be available. Still, the quicker you act, the quicker you might nab that dream job. Special thanks go out to Yehuda for doing all the dirty work.

[Photo via MMBOB on Flickr]

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Anyone still convinced of the anonymity of the internet should maybe think twice before complaining about their coworkers. Jessica Zenner recently lost her job at Nintendo of America over some slanderous remarks made on her blog. This, despite the fact that Zenner wrote under a pseudonym, and used no company or employee names when talking about her work.

Zenner -- who is 23-year-old and "good looking" according to The Seattle Stranger -- was contracted as a technical recruiter for Nintendo. Her blog, aptly titled Inexcusable Behavior, featured several posts in which she discusses co-workers and superiors, though never by name and without ever mentioning that she worked for Nintendo.

One post in particular focused on a female boss, referring to her as a "frumpy" and "hormonal" woman with "facial hair," and who gives Zenner "a new excuse to drink heavily." This post, among others, appear to have since been removed from her blog. VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan has stated that Nintendo does not forbid employees to keep blogs, but does discourage the practice. This echoes the "officially unofficial" policies of other large tech companies, like Microsoft.

[Via Game Politics]

"Want to play the world's greatest game? Well, you can't, because you haven't made it yet!"

Every time one of those commercials come on, tempting impressionable youth into delusions of game design grandeur and luring them into less-than-stellar colleges focused on game development skills, we cringe. Badly. To the point where our significant others wonder if we're developing some kind of chemical imbalance. Are these game-centric universities worth the money?

The experts over at GameCareerGuide lay out the various advantages and disadvantages of attending a game school (as opposed to a more traditional university). While leaving their final opinion ambiguous, the article does a great job of preparing up-and-coming bright minds about the ramifications of their educational decision. We're not going to give any sagacious advice, either, but we will recommend anyone considering a game development school to attend one near a cluster of development studios so that you can benefit from a co-op work program and do some beneficial networking.

Think you got what it takes to write for PS3 Fanboy? Prove it.

See: PS3 Fanboy calls for help! Applicants appear!

For the most part, the "Inside Scoop" about getting a job in the gaming industry sounded like getting a job in pretty much any industry, except maybe trading decommissioned nuclear weapons on the black market. They hit the main points several times, which were as follows:

• Have a professional looking resume.
• Wear clean, washed (!) clothes to any meeting or interview.
  
• Be on time.
• Network. Network. Network.
  

Like any industry you hope to break into, it's often not what you know, but who you know. Although panelist Bryan Stratton did add that he had a friend who he helped get a job in the field, and he ended up making a lot less money than he should have because of his lack of a higher education. So put down the controllers from time to time and read a book, ftw ... er, paycheck.

Of particular note, one panelist mentioned that the two most important applications you can learn to help get a job in the industry are ... Microsoft Excel and email. Most of the time you are going to be coordinating assets and communicating with other people, so it's highly important that you know your way around a spreadsheet, and can organize your inbox and send/receive files and then know where they are.

So if you can pwn in Excel as well as you do in Gears of War, then you're well on your way.

The second floor of Moscone West, one of the three buildings housing GDC, holds many publishers and developers looking for doe-eyed talent. Armed with just a dream and a résumé, students try to launch their careers, and industry vets try to find the next opportunity. We checked in with a few of the companies to discuss their outlook and objectives at the show.

An EA recruiter told us that the company is hiring developers for 11 different studios in nearly every position, including character animators, environmental artists, and software engineers. EA has a university relations department to entice students, but the company also helps schools develop programs to train future industry workers.

Heidi Lese, Manager of Recruitment for THQ, discussed her company's role at the show. THQ is looking for both developers and publishers to fit into its 17 studios. With the addition of publishing roles, THQ is seeking nearly all kinds of talent. If a walk-in candidate fits an open position, THQ holds an immediate interview. Otherwise, THQ evaluates and contacts candidates over the next few months.

Lese was more tentative about game schools, saying that some are great and can lead to roles at THQ, while some are still too young to offer a useful program. She didn't specify any school recommendations but said that students should attend one with a high placement rate in the industry. She also advised students get an internship -- whether interested in publishing or development.

Forum posters at Eurogamer unearthed a job posting seeking a C++ programmer for the development of Go for Xbox Live Arcade. According to Eurogamer, the job posting stated that, "this role will involve writing a Xbox 360 title for Xbox Live Arcade. The game will be an adaptation of the classic board game Go, and will support a 3D view and networked Xbox Live play."

The job posting looks to be missing from the page, so we're going to have to take Eurogamer's word that it once existed. Because of that, and since the project may never come to fruition, we're going to treat this as a rumor until we hear something through some more official channels. That said, we're extremely amused by the thought of Xbox Live younguns trash-talking their way through this traditional Chinese board game.

Microsoft had a Go variant, Reversi, packaged with Windows XP, but it does not seem to be included with Windows Vista.

[Via Eurogamer]

Like most of the rest of the tech-obsessed world, we were following along with rapt attention today as Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone to a massive MacWorld audience. Sure, it's pretty cool that you'll soon be able to make phone calls on the world's most popular MP3 player, but what we're really excited about is the gaming potential of the device. Why? Here's why:

• Dual-touch: Imagine the Nintendo DS touch screen. Now stretch it out, design it for fingers instead of a stylus, and let it recognize two different inputs simultaneously. We can only imagine the gaming possibilities designers can create with this.
• Accelerometer: Sure, Jobs uses it to simply switch between portrait and landscape modes, but we don't see any reason this feature can't be used for WarioWare Twisted-style games with tilt-based controls
• Internet: Wi-Fi is already old news on the Nintendo DS and PSP, but since the iPhone is a cell phone, you could theoretically connect to your cell network and play online even without a Wi-Fi hot spot. The built-in web browser has the potential to allow for mobile play on thousands of free Flash games as well.
• Built-in camera: This may sound a little silly, but we were really excited about the EyeToy-like functionality of the Gizmondo. Now that that's crashed and burned, the iPhone's built-in two-megapixel camera and detailed widescreen could bring the concept back.
• Distribution: iTunes is already on millions of computers and has trained users to accept making micropayments for downloadable content. Oh, and it already has games. Dare we dream of downloading games-on-demand over a cell phone network?

While Jobs didn't specifically mention any gaming applications for the iPhone during his keynote speech, we think it's only a matter of time before some form of interactive entertainment is announced for the device. At least, we hope it's only a matter of time. Please?