I’ve used both:
blender is better than Maya for the following: 1- Edit Mode 2-Selection 3-Easier to use.4-Free
Maya is better than blender for the following: 1-Better compatibility with Unreal Engine and other mainstream products specially the fbx issue 2-Maya has support and is adopted by Big studios 4-Maya has builtin rigging and tools library 5-Maya has a more refined result (arguable).
No matter what tool you use, your work will speak about you, both tools will provide you with the same results for game design, however Mesh manipulation and management is something that you need to worry about while using blender and unreal: as import and export fbx files is not that great from and to blender, since October 2016 until the day I’m writing this answer 17 08 2018 there are issues and surprises when I export and import stuff between blender and Unreal Engine using fbx as blender is not that great with fbx exports and imports but eventually it will do the job.
Both are tools that will get you to the same destination. If you are wanting to work in a game studio, you are better off learning and using Maya since thats likely what they will be using. Otherwise, use what you are comfortable with using and what you feel like spending money (or not) on.
Zbrush purely as a content creation tool is king in my opinion. Obviously it has a high learning curve, but as technical artist it’s an essential tool. Unlimited detail potential and it does incorporate functionality for hard surface subdivision type modeling so you can get the best of both worlds despite it being a sculpting application.
Of course you will be missing rigging and animation toolsets, but for content creation I think it makes the most sense. Even better for the indie developer or freelancer is ZbrushCore. 180 dollars for a perpetual license. So worth the money.
I know this is a Blender vs Maya thread, but I just couldn’t help but throw that in there.
On another note: Maya more often than not would crash at least once a day when I used it. If it wasn’t for the buggy software I might have stuck with it…but no more Autodesk for me.