There is more in the video game industry than retail. I'm a game entrepreneur and there are lots of things to be done other than retail, that get you in a better situation than it.
There are casual games -- but you're not going to be working on the cool 3D stuff unless you bow to the giant studios and work 80 hours a week.
Yes, but I'm not talking about it either. I work with interesting technologies (computer vision, virtual reality, 3d, etc) for the events industry. There are lots of opportunities in games other than retail and casual.