Whenever I get a score of 8 or lower, I get mad. I score a 39 on 1 game and was bitter. I'm turning into one of those people who say "8.0? That game must be garbage."
 
This game changing anyone else's view on scoring for their favorite games?

Ugh, Your game only got a 39. It's probably garbage. I HOPE YOU GO BANKRUPT.

You'll eventually hit the high 30's with time. I think I hit my first 40 about 10 years into it after hiring a bunch of crazy high stat hackers.
To get a hardware engineer, you either have to be lucky and score one as an applicant through hiring (I'm assuming through the Hollywood Agent), or the more easier way is to grab any guy and level him up to 5 on every occupation (Producer, Direction, Sound Engineer etc.) and then Hardware Engineer will be unlocked.

Won't take long to reach the point where all your games will be in the hall of fame.

So having busted through this f-ing time-sucking game twice now.. here's the deal.. 
  
- spend the first few cycles doing contract projects and training your guys 
- build a few PC games, and get a console license or two
- hire a badass (not a hacker necessarily, but a producer or something) once you can afford it (use the expensive hiring methods) -- it's best ot hire someone that's had previous jobs before.. scroll down to see their job history.
- when the salesman comes through buy the job-switching manuals 
- get your badass employee level 5 on all the 6 jobs (it will take time, job switch him/her once they reach 5 on everything)  
- hire the hackers, flesh out, level and train up your team
- job switch your  awesome level 5 employee to a hardware engineer
- build a console once you have a tidy sum of cash
- build titles for your console exclusively 
- once your console sales flatline (4-5 years), build another one that tops out all the specs 
- build titles for you new console.. by this point you'll be getting consistent hall of fame games 
 
- celebrate by realizing that you've killed a good 7-10 hours on this game. 
 
:)