3ds for non-organic models, Mudbox and Maya for organics. Organics being humanoid / monsters, etc…
For rapid prototyping of characters, I use Poser Game dev.
I feel like alot more people would be using “pro” tools if they came out with a rent-to-own subscription plan. Something like $20/month, and you could deposit more money into the account, much like how loans go about it.
As far as Autodesk products go, I feel that they are trying to move 3dsMax to more of an ArcViz type of program and Maya as more of the Game Dev software. I also suspect that they will drop MudBox, and put those capabilities in the Maya full version. Once Stingray is released, they will incorporate Autodesk Gameware into it.