I guess I just thought that since all of the most popular start ups CEOs never finished college

Setting aside the clear advice to stay in school, I think the honest way to ask the question you've started to ask, "Is school the right path for me?" is to make the distinction between whether school is an inconvenience to your current circumstances or whether it really is holding you back in the grand scheme. Honestly answering that question is the difference between making an impulsive reaction and a rational response.

In many of the high-profile cases you read about, you wouldn't call those people anything less than prodigious. They already had learned, or demonstrated the ability to learn on their own, everything their plans hinged upon -- hence the value of continuing their formal education right then and there was low. Combine that with a reality where moving on those plans immediately (for competitive or opportunity reasons) was necessary for success -- hence the opportunity cost of staying in formal education was very high -- and you can see how they rationally came to their own decisions. And still they could have failed had any single thing simply not aligned. Microsoft would not be what it is today if Gates' and Co. had not been able to secure the software that became DOS, or if they had failed to license it to IBM for the Personal Computer -- even the fact that it was licensed-to rather than sold outright to IBM was crucial to the Microsoft you know today. Facebook's success hinged largely on being in the right place at the right time, as early social-networking-ish things (livejournal, myspace) began to fall out of favor, and created a base so large that no new social network--to include some real juggernauts--has posed a real threat since; had it launched too early or too late, it could have ended up in the dustbin or as a too-late also-ran itself.

Even (or perhaps especially) if your indie game is really great, its unlikely that whether it launches this fall or two years from now will make a difference to its success -- or certainly not in any way you can quantify and capitalize on. If time-to-market is a significant factor, it would imply that your game lacks a certain uniqueness and is closely derivative of others, hence the competitive landscape it will face now or in the future will not be significantly different. If it is unique (and good), then time to market is not a significant concern because its value is derived from its enduringly-unique qualities, hence the competitive landscape will be no different in that case, either. Sure, its possible someone might independently develop and release something close to your idea, its happened and it will happen again, but that's the business equivalent of a rogue wave and there's no planning for that.

I read recently that there are now something like 1000--yes, one-thousand--games released on iOS and Android every day, and so every day just a few gems ride a wave of crap and only a couple might truly stand-out. Whichever category you find yourself in won't be significantly different in months or in years. All the other factors are essentially left to chance. You can only really control content and quality, and rushing usually doesn't help there. Note, though, that time to market is not a synonym for timing -- timing your release and marketing push is certainly crucial and is something you can and should reason about, but for a small player at least, has little if anything to do with whether you release this year or next, or the year after that.

There are some notable ones.

You forgot the founder of Epic Games :D

Here is a list with some more:

http://www.bloomberg.com/ss/09/05/0522_no_college_ceos/1.htm

Ahh what the hell here is an even bigger list:

http://www.collegedropoutshalloffame.com/

Have fun with the reading and remember that failure is the mother to success :P

First off, an introduction!

Hello everyone! I've stumbled onto this site recently and decided to join so I'm completely new to this community. :)

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to get an idea of what you guys think think of the current situation I find myself in. First off, I want to make games. I've always wanted to make games ever since i was a child. I'm currently 19 and am going to Community College, working a part time job, and developing a game I plan to release on IOS and Android this summer. I've been developing this game whenever I can find the time for the past 2 months and I believe it has a lot of potential. As much as want to keep developing and spending more time on this project, I feel like my education is holding me back. So that leaves me to my big question...

Should I leave College after this semester to work on my project full time?

I know education is important but wouldn't it be easier to get into this industry with a 100% completed project rather than any kind of degree? This semester in itself has been tough just because I try to make time for my game rather then studying and my grades show that. I've been thinking about this for awhile now and I would definitely appreciate some advice from people currently in the industry. :P

Education doesn't hold you back, a lack of education does.

Use your passion for game development to fuel your studies. Got a boring math class? Figure out how you can use the math material being taught in game development. Got an english class with lots of writing? Figure out how that can help you write better stories and narratives for your games. Got a team project? Use this as training to learn how to work with and communicate with other people -- that is also a skill which gets used every day in game dev. I guarantee when you start taking this approach to education, trying to relate the material you're learning to the material you're passionate about, you'll get passionate about the material you're learning.

Also, don't be an idiot. Your priority should be school and studies first, game development second. Study hard and master the material you're being taught. Don't just try to pass a final test and do a brain dump afterwards, try to add the learning to your list of skills. Think of it like leveling up skills in an RPG -- max out those XP gains! Would you rather be a level 10 game developer or a level 2 game developer? Stay in school. Work hard. Stay focused. Work hard. stay motivated. work hard. Keep at it. You'll get there.

Well, what degree have you enrolled in? Computing? Hair dressing? Tiddly winks? Shaving?

If its a degree that has you doing some programming, maths and software develpment then 100% it will be worth it. If its something completely unrelated and - quite frankly - useless towards the goal of developing software then you need to switch to a more relevent degree.

In the end, its a decision that only you can make. Some swear by having a degree, is a right to a job or that "the paper" is for wiping their bum clean. I took mine out of fear of the future and peer pressure, but in the end, I felt it was both a personal accomplishment I am proud of and yet it was also holding me back from allowing me to focus on exactly what I wanted to do. Did I get a job out of it? No, but it did teach me how become a better programmer, and it allowed me to become part of the field in some small way - helping other students when the chips were down, some in very unfortunate situations.

Consider what all have said here, and make sure you have thought it through thoroughly before throwing in the towel.

God speed!!! ^_^