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C++ is still near top for the growing game programming market along with C# and some of the scripting languages like PHP. There is still a lot of C and C++ code in all kinds of processor and embedded device applications because it works best at the machine level.

Right. C++ and C are great skills to have even if it's not your everyday language precisely because they get you so close to the machine level. Occasionally that extra 10% in performance improvement can make a big difference - esp. in a tight loop with a complex algorithm using pointers, bit manipuation, etc. (like a screen renderer) which you can hand optimize in a way not possible in C# or Java.

Personally, I like to understand everything operationally from top-to-bottom as well as possible, and have as much control as possible to build a modular app using different languages according to what's appropriate for a given task - one that runs rings around a more "pure" appusing only the top layer. C++ is my language of choice, but I like the way C# is organized with its Java-esque packaging framework.