i fail to see the "upgrade" you'd receive simply from switching over to film or whatever. i do however see how your pay and life-balance could suddenly improve when you trade in your seat at a studio with some startup-culture for a more organised (might i say - professional?) one with nice financial backing. there are…
Good thread, lots of good reading in here. Moving into a smaller R&D firm or starting your own studio seem like common alternatives for seasoned gamedev artists. I did the former, after about 9 yrs in game dev. Now I'm working on realtime3D military training apps (among lots of other things), and it's actually pretty fun…