lol, are you discouraging me for enforcing myself to study Directx? lol
Well thank you for your discouragement but I am half way through, the whole life was not spent but a contant of six months - to a year 
Right now i am a hobbyist planning on starting my own thing, and onething I know for sure that XNA game studio will not just cut it. If I want to be debt free I must learn the core essentials of game programming. Which is why I have turned to Directx programming.
So, Softimage XSI, Photoshop, c/c++, Directx, massive maths is what I practice these days.
My Goal: Work my way through the simple small ideas and construct a Game Studio soon. 
How to Achieve it: I am learning how to make the open source engine. Works better if you are creating just a game or two for the test run(s), later on I’ll probebly try to create an Editor out of it along with the game engine to make things alot easier for me and perhaps my studio. But thats talking in a long run (not a life long run)
Blender Game Engine is yet to be perfected, their fluid simulation still lacks too much and so does their flame simulation. You can make the entire good 3d Animation video out of it, it isnt recommended for the commercial still.
EDIT: Uhh…Ubisoft now uses Gamebryo for their games. Its a plugin for 3d app that helps you convert your viewport in 3d environment to a 3d game environment with ground collisions, directly derived animated physics, Models and what not. And for further stunt that they show on E3 was because they have many resources and new personnel for new ideas.