Get out of the gaming industry while you still can. Otherwise, you'll be looking at getting out of the software industry in no time.
A few are still doing games now, in the indie scene. The most interesting of those, imo, is Richard Evans (formerly of Black & White and The Sims 3), who's building an interactive-fiction platform on top of a novel logic-based social-simulation engine (http://www.versu.com). But a lot are doing entirely different things: some moved to "regular" programming jobs, ranging from simulation programming for big engineering companies or defense contractors (somewhat related) to almost anything at all that provides a regular job. A number have gone back to grad school. A few have become freelance consultants.
Imo it really stunts the growth of game AI as well, because there are remarkably few experienced senior AI devs who actually stay in the field, long enough to develop a sense of how to architect systems, how to interface with designers, and actually improve things over time.
Each step away from games has lead to more sane company environments and higher proportional incentives. The reality of games is that programmers are underpaid in comparison to other industries. If a web programmer with X years of experience can command a salary of Y you can expect a game programmer with X years of experience to command approximately 2/3 * Y. Exact same geographical region.
In return for being underpaid you will encounter far more 'crunch time'. I was fortunate in prioritizing this concern in the companies I chose to work for, but many of my friends in the AAA games industry have become completely used to working 10 hour days, 6 days a week, for 3-6 months straight at a time. Every. Single. Fucking. Year. Around July is when it begins; holiday launch schedules being the driving factor.
On top of this, as illustrated in TFA, even if your game is a huge success you have extremely little job security. Saying the industry is entirely hit driven is actually missing the point; the issue is most AAA game studios are essentially huge, expensive, single-focus (and usually single-project) consultancies. Even if you have a success the lions share of the returns is going to go to the publisher and you are immediately back to pitching to the publisher to keep the lights turned on.
So why is it this way? IMHO there are two main reasons.
The first is because AAA titles are ridiculously expensive now. Internally financing one is completely out of the capabilities of any studio at this point. In the past it was possible to save from a good success and self-finance the next: no way now. In the past it was possible for a rag-tag group of passionate developers to have a AAA breakaway success. Impossible now.
The second is because it's something lots of people dream of doing. The only sane reason to work in games is the exact reason most people who work in games continue to work in games: they love it. They love games. They love the tech in games (which, compared to the CRUD factories the vast majority of programming gigs outside of games, is really fucking awesome). They are following the advice of 'do what you love' and paying for it. Because there are TONS of other people that also love it.
It's stunning the amount of turnover in the games industry. 5 years of experience is senior. 10 years is old school veteran. Because people burn out and leave. Because there is an endless supply of less experienced cheaper developers to fill in the gaps.
The answer 'go indie' is just naive. For every indie success there are ungodly numbers of complete failures and you can no longer twist the knobs of a publisher's titan AAA marketing machine to stack the deck. Going indie is doing a startup which is impossible to fund and which has no hope or aspirations of Facebook level success. It is a giant success in the indie game world is to be successful enough to just support yourselves! It is something to be done by those with the love and passion for doing so for the reason of having the love and passion of doing so. It's never a rational decision from a purely financial point of view. I have the utmost respect and admiration for those who follow this path precisely for this reason.
The games industry is an entertainment industry. It's more apt to compare game developers to musicians or actors or writers in the way the economics operate. It's not a business; it never will be. And honestly, I do miss it.
How do you think is it possible that one day Web Development (generally speaking, industry of Internet startups) may fall into the same gap? There are a lot of guys around who enjoy Web programming very much. Fortunately, we have a lot of job opportunities, and work conditions look good. But I fear how long will it be.