College, for sure.

There's no real need to go into life-long debt to accomplish a BS, though. Do the first year or two's worth of credits at your local Community College, and then transfer to a decent in-state public University to finish up. People love to shit on random state universities, but they tend to have excellent post graduation employment rates.

The biggest key, if he wants to program (video games or anything else) is to ACTUALLY PROGRAM. A lot. Over and over. Publish his stuff online. A lot. Then, when you graduate from school, you have a real portfolio of products to present an employer.

~amy