'You will not enjoy videogames anymore if you work in a big game studio:' New Blood's boss weighs in on what sets it apart amid an industry crisis

Sounds like he's saying that when game companies go public (or voluntarily put money before fun), the enshittification sets in.

Small studios with heart still make fun games.

There's a few divisions in companies that can still have fun, but it's pretty far and few between (and they generally get overpaid regardless).
I heard stories of Nintendo's Breath of the Wild having great leadership and a sense that everyone contribute (which lead to success, not sure about the sequel); also Monster Hunter Rise had fun and that lead to a few easter eggs getting into the game. Incidentally, at the same time REs devs complained and Capcom as a whole has been a crapshoot.
Heart leads to great games, though, and a handful of directors recognize that (and have the rep to do what they want without corporate killing it.)
- Nintendo has a shit attitude towards consumers, but their internal structure allows for a lot of designers to have plenty of freedom to experiment, reiterate and try new things, and ultimately make a lot of fun mechanics. A concern of mine is that, when the historical big names of the company (Miyamoto, Aonuma, Sakurai; Iwata is no longer there) begin retiring, the internal balance of power will shift in a different direction, and the one saving grace of theirs will begin to slowly fade away.
So… shareholders are the assholes yet again.
Some studio should sell shares only to true gamers who put fun before money
- Or just exchange the games for money like Gabe intended

Video game jobs, when I was in the industry at least, draw in young idealistic game developers, pay them less than other tech counterparts, burn them out as fast as possible and then lay them off.

It is definitely hard to enjoy that and come out the other side still as excited about games.

I saw this happening (and was told about it by my professors who still worked in the industry) 14 years ago in college and decided that I'd rather work at the fish market I worked at as a summer job throughout high school rather than go through a 4 year degree program just to make the same amount of money I was already making.
The brain drain is real, and the companies don't care because there's always fresh college kids right out of Digipen, Full Sail, or wherever else, ready to work for peanuts because they're passionate about making games.
- We see this a lot in engineering as well. The flashy and defense companies have undergrads lined up and frothing at the mouth to try and work for them.
  Then the utility companies pay better, better benefits, and at 4pm you are done. Meanwhile the high profile companies have new hires doing bitch work and working 60 hours a week.
Thankfully I started in tech before video games were really a thing but I have had coworkers from gaming industries and they were the most jaded people I had ever met when they started out. They were also universally shocked how little work they had to do for the money they got.
Hey that happened to me! And now many years later I'm looking to get back into the industry because I'm a slut for corporate abuse...
- Every time I've been tempted (I've a few mates working for Ubisoft), I look at the salaries and compare to what I make working for banks and, well, I'm a an mercenary kind of guy.
- We all have our kinks.
  I am currently being pounded by big corporate tech, but they pay me much better than the games industry could.
Yup, I highly doubt it's the "working on games" part that does it.
I loved software development as a kid (taught myself to make a webpage, did lots of personal FOSS projects, etc), so I decided to do it for work, and I still love working on personal FOSS projects after 15-ish years in the industry. So I highly doubt it's the work itself that does it, but the working conditions. If I had to do extended crunch time, I would also hate software development, regardless of what I'm building. Likewise for other roles, like art, testing, etc. My brother did game QA for a couple years in college, and he spent most of his extra money on more games...
So yeah, fix your working conditions and people won't lose their love for games and the work they do.
- That sounds expensive. How about we do more layoffs instead?

You will not enjoy videogames anymore, if you play big game studio games.

Go indie. Stay indie. Indie 4 Lyfe.

Biggest shame? Those in the industry get free copies of the games-- accountants, HR, etc. It's wasted on so many people who gave up on the fun of gaming (except video game trophy husbands like myself! Bwauahaha)

Most people that work for game studios don't like video game in the first place.

It will get better. I needed some years, and I never got as deep into games as before, but I'm a big boy now, that might be the reason. The game industry is a vampire and it'll suck you dry. To be honest, that's for bigger studios. I have no clue how indie studios are.

In an analog, my college degree required me to read. A lot. Like, I devoured books as a kid, but this was a lot, every week, and it was a required reading. I enjoy it, but I didn't read after that. I've also heard similar experiences from my friends who went to law school, so much reading they've stopped reading. My husband knows several artists who go into graphic design and stop doing art in their personal time.
I just last month got back into reading. It's been over twenty years since college and I just got the ability to read through more than a handful of pages in a book.
When something is work, you don't necessarily want to do it in your offtime.

This is too true..