"I don't know anyone who would be exclusively working on game music, per se"

The statement gently undercuts the notion of a rigidly siloed profession and points to the fluid, hybrid reality of music work around games. It recognizes that composers rarely confine themselves to a single medium; they write concert pieces, arrange albums, form bands, produce records, score films or anime, consult on sound design, or teach. The phrase “per se” adds a careful hedge, suggesting not an absolute impossibility but an observed tendency: the healthiest and most common careers orbit games without being entirely defined by them.

There’s also a creative argument embedded here. Treating game music as one branch of a broader musical life prevents the art from ossifying. Cross‑pollination with rock, classical, jazz, and electronic scenes brings fresh techniques and timbres back into interactive scoring. Uematsu’s own path reflects this ethos, studio albums, live performances, and collaborative bands expanding the vocabulary he brings to narrative and gameplay. The comment resists pigeonholing, implying that a composer’s voice is shaped by many contexts, and that games benefit when that voice isn’t constrained.

Economics and production practices reinforce the point. Game projects are cyclical and team‑based; opportunities arrive in bursts, and long gaps encourage diversification. Rights structures, budgets, and schedules often push composers toward parallel ventures, labels, concerts, licensing, or non‑game commissions, to sustain both income and momentum. Historically, many game musicians also wore technical hats, blurring boundaries between composition, arranging, and sound implementation. Even as the industry has matured and specialized, the ecosystem still rewards adaptability, collaboration, and a portfolio that extends beyond any single niche.

Read this way, the line is less a dismissal of game music as a vocation and more a testament to the porous borders that keep it vibrant. It frames game scoring not as an isolated job title but as a node in a larger musical career, where versatility safeguards sustainability and deepens artistic impact.