Software engineering for video games is pretty darn complicated. Surely it must be hard to get hold of the next John Carmack or at least someone remotely close to that. Is demand for good talent really filled here?

The whole talk about "talent" is bullshit. Big corps don't want John Carmacks. They want replaceable, predictable drones that do what they are told to do.

Game studios aren't filled with and don't need to be filled with hundreds of John Carmacks.

If your "about-to-release crunch" involves building an entire engine from scratch with no help John Carmack style, you have much bigger problems.

Can’t argue with that.