@StellarAirman has made fantastic point that I wasn’t considering. As you probably know, the casual market is absolutely booming, and developing a quality iPhone title is a sure-fire way to get developer interest from a bigger publisher, like Ubisoft. Sure, you might be put on to develop the next Imagine: Babiez or Raving Rabbids, but don’t forget – Ubisoft creates AAA titles like Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and Beyond Good and Evil.
Developing for actual consoles is a bit tricky. PS3/360 dev kits are stupid expensive (upwards 3k, though speaking with Microsoft/Sony PR, I’ve heard that they are reducing the price), so developing a title for the PSN or LIVE is very, very hard on a limited budget. Besides, you’re JUST starting out.
Because people straight out of game design school have an obvious advantage and are aiming for the higher-end publishers and developers, I’d suggest you focus on something smaller, just to – as it has been said – get your foot in the door. I’d still work on a mod or something bigger, but I’d definitely take a look at developing for smaller platforms – things that aren’t so hard to pick up. iPhone/iPod Touch dev kits are cheap these days (might even be free, I don’t know), and you can definitely take a look into the architecture and create something simple, just to get your feet wet with creating an actual, standalone product.
Final thing to note: take a look at the Open Pandora. This thing is already huge in the homebrew and opensource community and widely anticipated. It will definitely be the next big thing for nerds (just don’t the mainstream to pick up on it).
If you develop something high-quality and tailor-fit for this handheld, you can bet your ass that you’ll be getting phone calls. I hate to just shamelessly plug myself, but I did interview one of the guys behind the scenes, and stay in contact with the team here and there. If you’re interested in the platform itself and want to find out more about it, you can read interview here.