In addition to low salary, and crunchtime, the other big downside in the gaming industry is frequently layoffs, and studioes going bust.

You can't ride on a single game for long, and if the next one goes badly half the company will get fired. Not true of the bigger studios, but of course not everybody works in those.

I have friends who work in gaming, and it's a regular thing for studios to form with a great game, go bust a year or three later, and then a new studio get formed with largely similar staff.

Developers move between the same companies around and around again. The lack of stability is a real problem, especially with increasing use of "AI".

Shit can hit the fan with bigger studios when Microsoft or Sony acquire them.