The problem is that you're missing the point entirely. This has little to do with Manhunt, and has far more to do with censorship, violence in games, and main-stream portrayal of video games. This is what we call "precedence setting". While you might not care if they decide to ban Manhunt based on violence, something tells me you might care if they then decide that the upcoming Halo 4 (or God of War 3, or [insert bad-ass violent game sequel here]) game is excessively violent as well.
And before you come back telling me you never play violent games, it isn't so far to reach and say that Super Mario Bros., despite the lack of blood, still has the main character killing tons of seemingly-innocent wildlife. Sure, it seems like an incredible stretch, but you have to ask "where does it stop" once you start villainizing games and ignoring the fact that some games are made for adults as well.
I have to second Eternal Darkness as one of the most immersing games out there. For those who don't know, ED has a "sanity meter" in addition to your normal mana and health meters. As your insanity goes down, you start to hallucinate. But see, when I say "you", I really mean "you, the player". The hallucinations are so realistic sometimes that I really wasn't always sure what was part of the game and what was really happening in my living room. It starts out simple, with the entire screen tilting only 2-3 degrees off level, and a slight echo occurring in the sound. You hardly notice it. But then it starts to get much more intense. You'll see blood dripping from the ceiling. Your head will spontaneously explode, you'll die, and then you'll suddenly appear back where you were. One time a completely realistic cockroach crawled right across my television set. I don't care how many times I see that, it still freaks me out. And then the blue screen of death. Holy crap I thought I had broken my freakin' Gamecube. It was the best player immersion I have seen this side of Metal Gear Solid.
Neither of them made any gender references anywhere, so you don't even know what sex they are. You don't think women read slashdot too? Or perhaps they just weren't familiar with the details of the French language. Either way, piss off you homophobic jackass.
Ah, that's good news! I used to read the panel discussions but hadn't explored much more of Game Tunnel (obviously, I suppose). Then yeah, I kinda agree...why is this such big news?
Thanks for the link. I find it very sad that this feature is disappearing from Game Tunnel. Indy gaming is one of the best places to find new ideas and innovations in computer games. So many of the big games these days, while very polished with high production values, are still just sequels and licensed material: safe bets in a market of ever-increasing development costs. Computer games are admittedly a little better than console games these days in terms of innovation, but I think a lot of that is because of independent developers who "free" themselves from development costs (i.e. nights and weekends) and thus are able to experiment with gameplay ideas. Long live the indy developer and the indy gamers! Game Tunnel, your review panel will surely be missed.
I don't remember the last time a/. conversation pissed me off this much. I can't believe some of you people. However, in a direct reply to your overly aggressive and grossly misinformed post:
Yes, you can get HIV from needlesticks . This article clearly states that in the UK alone at least 5 confirmed infections from needlesticks have occurred. Of course that's not a huge number, but it clearly happens.
Similarly, this is but one article identifying some women who have gotten HIV from their husbands. I'm think you are the one who should be reading up before making an ass of yourself. I found both of these references with a quick Google search. I'm sure you could have managed the same, and I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
Oh, and let's not forget mother-child infection. I suppose you believe those newborns deserve to die as well, yes?
I fully agree. I was scrolling through to see if anyone had said as much before I posted, and I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm amazed this made/., and I'm amazed (or perhaps saddened) that the ESRB felt obligated to justify this. When you go to the movies and see a PG movie, you can't yell at the MPAA if someone sitting behind you in the theatre drops the F-bomb 10 or 20 times while watching it.
Perhaps slightly more accurately, if you pick up a children's book in which someone has drawn obscene pictures throughout (thus becoming a part of the medium rather than adjacent commentary, the difference between game content and live chat), you can't exactly blame the publisher or author. Why this distinction is hard to make I really don't understand.
Indeed. I'm not sure why this point was made. n=1000 is generally enough to get statistically significant results. Having more than that in no way guarantees "more accuracy" or whatever they were trying to argue. What is important is the selection method. An evenly distributed, random, blind sampling of 1000 people is going to be far more accurate than a self-selected survey of 1,000,000 people with similar opinions. I'm not saying this is what happened in this case (or that Gallup polls are better), but ultimately the number itself is irrelevant to the accuracy of the report once you've crossed a certain threshold. You reduce your error, but you might simply end up with a small standard error centered on a biased response.
A lot of businesses are easy to imitate. How hard is it to make ketchup? But I defy you to take down Heinz. Or Hanes Tee-shirts, or whatever. It's all about brand name and/or quality. Fact is, while Popcap doesn't have many original games (Peggle is pretty cool but really is a glorified Pachinko machine), they have fantastic production values and an established name (and do some small things that increase replay value). I don't think their market share is really in trouble - really they should just stop complaining and keep making the quality casual games that they've been making.
Except that if this move bankrupts all internet radio you won't receive any money because there won't be any more "performances" of your songs. I have gone out and purchased CDs because of music I've heard on internet radio (and for that matter, because of music I downloaded on Napster years ago too). If they wanted to create a modest increase in internet royalties and pay those directly to the artists, fine. But a 300% increase, retroactively? How much of that do you honestly think you're going to see? And is a one-time check really worth losing any future fans that may have stumbled across your music via internet radio? I feel for your hardship, I do. But something tells me that this move really won't benefit you nearly as much as the recording industry that wants to reduce competition and grab more of the market segment.
I'm going to both commend Dell for this move and attack them for turning it into a crappy promotion for themselves. Yes, they made a mistake. Yes, they listened and responded well. Bravo to them and their PR department for realizing the blunder and admitting to it (because, let's be honest - those 22 confessions were ways to get better deals on DELL systems: it was a giant ad for Dell anyway, I can't believe they decided to try to challenge it). However, the 23 "confessions" that Dell posted are utter PR crap.
5) We are committed to being the greenest technology company on the planet. It's the right thing to do for ourselves, our environment and our customers. See details in the Programs section of this page for more information.
9) We normally wouldn't have said this in the past, but we have some very cool PCs being introduced later this month. Stay tuned and you'll see what we mean. Matter of fact, I've seen some pictures here and here.
*Puts on Jon Stewart voice* "All right guys, we admit it. We've been trying to hide it from you, but you found us out. We're trying to be eco friendly. We're a bit ashamed of it, but since we're now being open and honest with our consumers, we'll just say it. Oh, and why not really open up and show our underbelly to you: WE HAVE SOME AWESOME NEW SYSTEMS COMING OUT SOON!!!! GO TO OUR WEBSITE!!1!!11!"
Plus, #23 is utter crap and was just put on there so they could literally 1-up the previous article. I've bought a lot of Dell's, and for the money they're some of the best computers you can get, but this kind of lame PR stunt, when they almost had a legitimately honest and strong response, just pisses me off.
I'm pretty sure those domestic gross numbers are purely box office numbers (and Bloodrayne was $2.4MM, not $1.55MM (which was opening weekend), but that's just nitpicky). It's very possible, though I haven't found numbers to support the theory, that the DVD sales/rentals can add significantly to these figures. Does anyone know if generally how box office revenue compares to DVD revenue, specifically from the studio's perspective?
However, beyond financials, you're right - why would a studio want to associate themselves with such utter crap? All three of the movies you identified are listed in IMDB's worst 100 movies of all time, with House of the Dead claiming the worst of the 3 at the #20 worst movie ever. That's quite a track record.
I'll address a couple of comments to my post here.
First off, I'm not sure I entirely agree with the assessment of the NeoGeo. It sold only 1 million units (according to that same Wikipedia article) in your mentioned 14 years. Yet I remember seeing it in Babbages alongside SNES and the like - and to my 10-year-old eyes it was the big cool gaming system that was just too expensive. The 3DO, as mentioned, died a similar death. Both systems, along with the Jaguar, were ahead of their time. The PS3 is not - at least not with the current games available.
Rachel - I compared from launch, yes. And it started out the same, as I said, but at week 21 you can see a very clear drop in the growth rate, almost to the point of completely leveling out. Remember, these aren't weekly sales, these are total sales, so a leveling means they aren't selling anything. The weekly chart perhaps shows this picture a little clearer. As for the Wii, I originally had it in that chart, but pulled it out because it obscured the point. I said the Wii is selling better, that's not in debate, since it's already reasonably priced - what was important was that, despite a good start, the PS3 is falling behind the 360.
Most certainly not. The NeoGeo never saw a price cut and died a horrible death. The Wii on the other hand started at a price people were comfortable with (I think $250 is going to be this generation's $200 mark - $300 is a little high and will probably be next generation) and has sold phenomenally.
The XBOX360 released at what was roughly equivalent to the PS2 and XBOX release points (with inflation, yada yada). All of those systems showed very similar sales in the first year and then dropped in price after hype died down and early adopters all owned one. The PS3, while starting out comparable to the 360, is distinctly losing momentum at this point. It is sitting in a position of having numerous "hardcore" gamers (myself included) who really honestly want one but can't afford it - as has been pointed out, it's the affordability, not the bang-for-the-buck, that's holding people back.
Honestly, that's a darned good point. I loathe myself for saying this, but I agree with his decision to turn down the invitation. It wouldn't have mattered how well he argued his point (not that I think he could have), he would have been utterly eviscerated on that stage by the audience. It was a lose-lose situation and he was wise to decline it.
That said, coming up with BS reasons for such a decline was not a great idea. I mean, I RTFA, and after reading his email I kinda had the feeling he might have had a few too many bloody mary's before writing it. Hell's Angels? "I'm surprised, Dennis, frankly, that you have so naively taking this dodge."? He had to know this email would get published - I would think he might try proof-reading it.
The real problem though I don't think is Jack Thompson. He's a waste of our time, a lost cause. He's fanatical, and you can't change that. The problem is that the political world and the American people as a whole haven't figured this out yet. We need to work on educating them, rather than simply humiliating the frontman (which at this point has gotten far too easy). I think Penny Arcade would be awesome to suggest another debate - this time in the Senate. I think it's a fantastic idea to get some people who know about games to talk with him about it in a forum, but let's do it in a place that could actually matter, instead of just preaching to the crowd at PAX. Go get'em boys!!
Nobody can argue that this won't have a profound effect on future console design.
I'll argue that the Wii controller could potentially not have a profound impact on controllers in the future. It will if we see games take advantage of it, but so far I have yet to see anything outside of Wii Sports (and potentially Wario Ware, which I haven't played) make truly good use of its motion sensor. There are plenty of games that make good use of pointing, but I find the pointer to be awkward (why oh why can't we calibrate it like we could with light guns?!) and well, mouse pointers have existed for quite some time.
Addressing the question at hand, I must admit that I'm (perhaps pleasantly) surprised that there's such a debate here. In my mind, Sony has held the monopoly on controller design ever since the first Playstation. In terms of giving you the most control within easy reach and in a fairly comfortable package I've personally found nothing better. I don't understand those who complain about too many buttons, especially on the shoulders. Your pointer and middle fingers are a complete waste up there without some buttons (heck, why don't we have ring and pinky buttons?). I see the ease of control of games like Tony Hawk and SSX on the PS2 to really show off the design - plus I can't imagine playing Frequency/Amplitude on any other system (no other system would allow you to hit buttons that fast on the shoulders). As has been said, the d-pad is far superior, and with the sixaxis we get motion sensing and finally a decent pressure-sensitive shoulder button. So, that's my two cents.
DVDs don't enter into the picture in that statistic though. Let's be clear: the game industry is larger than ticket BOX OFFICE sales (http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/12/19/2350234. shtml?tid=98&tid=10). It is far smaller than the movie industry (including DVDs, rentals, etc.) as a whole - which further shows why games aren't as mainstream as some are trying to argue here.
I couldn't agree more. However, the key word is "yet". Look at the first generation of games on any new system and they aren't even in the same ballpark as the last few games on a system. The last Spyro game on PS1 competed well graphically with many of the PS2 launch titles, and Final Fantasy XII is stacking up well against 360 and PS3 titles. Gears of War, now that developers are starting to learn the 360 development tricks, blows away the both the PS3 and 360 launch titles.
However, IBM has made no bones about the fact that the Cell is difficult to develop for (from the article on the Cell processor):
The architecture emphasizes efficiency/watt, prioritizes bandwidth over latency, and favors peak computational throughput over simplicity of program code. For these reasons, Cell is widely regarded as a challenging environment for software development. IBM provides a comprehensive Linux-based Cell development platform to assist developers in confronting these challenges. Software adoption remains a key issue in whether Cell ultimately delivers on its performance potential.
Recall though that developers had the same complaints about the PS2 and its "emotion engine". It will take time to truly take advantage of the cell processor. I will be buying my Wii and waiting a year or two to see what churns out for the PS3. The potential is there, yes, but whether or not anyone exploits it remains to be seen.
I would argue that it's a bit more than a graphics upgrade, especially on the part of the PS3. The Cell architecture will allow much more advanced AI and physics, among other things. This has the potential, if the developers take advantage of it appropriately, to really make some new offerings in gaming. We're seeing PCs take the same path with the introduction of the Physx physics card and a dedicated AI chip. The other big step is pure processing power harvested as the ability to present many more entities on screen. Look at Assassin's Creed or Dead Rising as games that have started to use crowd effects to great advantage.
The difference is that mouse is motion-input while a joystick is purely vector based (a direction and a magnitude - i.e. how hard you're pushing it). With a joystick you have a firm bound on how fast you can move your gun. Or, if you've turned your sensitivity way up, you'll often have more trouble with fine aiming. A mouse is much closer simulation of aiming an actual gun, and is the best way to do it outside of a lightgun (or Wiimote).
That's not to say that the dual-joystick configuration for PS2 or XBOX doesn't work for aiming. But you take the top Quake players (using keyboard/mouse) out there and match them up against the top Halo players (using XBOX controllers), and I guarantee you Quake'll win.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is that you're missing the point entirely. This has little to do with Manhunt, and has far more to do with censorship, violence in games, and main-stream portrayal of video games. This is what we call "precedence setting". While you might not care if they decide to ban Manhunt based on violence, something tells me you might care if they then decide that the upcoming Halo 4 (or God of War 3, or [insert bad-ass violent game sequel here]) game is excessively violent as well.
And before you come back telling me you never play violent games, it isn't so far to reach and say that Super Mario Bros., despite the lack of blood, still has the main character killing tons of seemingly-innocent wildlife. Sure, it seems like an incredible stretch, but you have to ask "where does it stop" once you start villainizing games and ignoring the fact that some games are made for adults as well.
I have to second Eternal Darkness as one of the most immersing games out there. For those who don't know, ED has a "sanity meter" in addition to your normal mana and health meters. As your insanity goes down, you start to hallucinate. But see, when I say "you", I really mean "you, the player". The hallucinations are so realistic sometimes that I really wasn't always sure what was part of the game and what was really happening in my living room. It starts out simple, with the entire screen tilting only 2-3 degrees off level, and a slight echo occurring in the sound. You hardly notice it. But then it starts to get much more intense. You'll see blood dripping from the ceiling. Your head will spontaneously explode, you'll die, and then you'll suddenly appear back where you were. One time a completely realistic cockroach crawled right across my television set. I don't care how many times I see that, it still freaks me out. And then the blue screen of death. Holy crap I thought I had broken my freakin' Gamecube. It was the best player immersion I have seen this side of Metal Gear Solid.
Neither of them made any gender references anywhere, so you don't even know what sex they are. You don't think women read slashdot too? Or perhaps they just weren't familiar with the details of the French language. Either way, piss off you homophobic jackass.
Ah, that's good news! I used to read the panel discussions but hadn't explored much more of Game Tunnel (obviously, I suppose). Then yeah, I kinda agree...why is this such big news?
Thanks for the link. I find it very sad that this feature is disappearing from Game Tunnel. Indy gaming is one of the best places to find new ideas and innovations in computer games. So many of the big games these days, while very polished with high production values, are still just sequels and licensed material: safe bets in a market of ever-increasing development costs. Computer games are admittedly a little better than console games these days in terms of innovation, but I think a lot of that is because of independent developers who "free" themselves from development costs (i.e. nights and weekends) and thus are able to experiment with gameplay ideas. Long live the indy developer and the indy gamers! Game Tunnel, your review panel will surely be missed.
I don't remember the last time a /. conversation pissed me off this much. I can't believe some of you people. However, in a direct reply to your overly aggressive and grossly misinformed post:
Yes, you can get HIV from needlesticks . This article clearly states that in the UK alone at least 5 confirmed infections from needlesticks have occurred. Of course that's not a huge number, but it clearly happens.
Similarly, this is but one article identifying some women who have gotten HIV from their husbands. I'm think you are the one who should be reading up before making an ass of yourself. I found both of these references with a quick Google search. I'm sure you could have managed the same, and I'm sure there are plenty more out there.
Oh, and let's not forget mother-child infection. I suppose you believe those newborns deserve to die as well, yes?
I fully agree. I was scrolling through to see if anyone had said as much before I posted, and I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm amazed this made /., and I'm amazed (or perhaps saddened) that the ESRB felt obligated to justify this. When you go to the movies and see a PG movie, you can't yell at the MPAA if someone sitting behind you in the theatre drops the F-bomb 10 or 20 times while watching it.
Perhaps slightly more accurately, if you pick up a children's book in which someone has drawn obscene pictures throughout (thus becoming a part of the medium rather than adjacent commentary, the difference between game content and live chat), you can't exactly blame the publisher or author. Why this distinction is hard to make I really don't understand.
Indeed. I'm not sure why this point was made. n=1000 is generally enough to get statistically significant results. Having more than that in no way guarantees "more accuracy" or whatever they were trying to argue. What is important is the selection method. An evenly distributed, random, blind sampling of 1000 people is going to be far more accurate than a self-selected survey of 1,000,000 people with similar opinions. I'm not saying this is what happened in this case (or that Gallup polls are better), but ultimately the number itself is irrelevant to the accuracy of the report once you've crossed a certain threshold. You reduce your error, but you might simply end up with a small standard error centered on a biased response.
A lot of businesses are easy to imitate. How hard is it to make ketchup? But I defy you to take down Heinz. Or Hanes Tee-shirts, or whatever. It's all about brand name and/or quality. Fact is, while Popcap doesn't have many original games (Peggle is pretty cool but really is a glorified Pachinko machine), they have fantastic production values and an established name (and do some small things that increase replay value). I don't think their market share is really in trouble - really they should just stop complaining and keep making the quality casual games that they've been making.
Except that if this move bankrupts all internet radio you won't receive any money because there won't be any more "performances" of your songs. I have gone out and purchased CDs because of music I've heard on internet radio (and for that matter, because of music I downloaded on Napster years ago too). If they wanted to create a modest increase in internet royalties and pay those directly to the artists, fine. But a 300% increase, retroactively? How much of that do you honestly think you're going to see? And is a one-time check really worth losing any future fans that may have stumbled across your music via internet radio? I feel for your hardship, I do. But something tells me that this move really won't benefit you nearly as much as the recording industry that wants to reduce competition and grab more of the market segment.
I'm going to both commend Dell for this move and attack them for turning it into a crappy promotion for themselves. Yes, they made a mistake. Yes, they listened and responded well. Bravo to them and their PR department for realizing the blunder and admitting to it (because, let's be honest - those 22 confessions were ways to get better deals on DELL systems: it was a giant ad for Dell anyway, I can't believe they decided to try to challenge it). However, the 23 "confessions" that Dell posted are utter PR crap.
5) We are committed to being the greenest technology company on the planet. It's the right thing to do for ourselves, our environment and our customers. See details in the Programs section of this page for more information. 9) We normally wouldn't have said this in the past, but we have some very cool PCs being introduced later this month. Stay tuned and you'll see what we mean. Matter of fact, I've seen some pictures here and here.*Puts on Jon Stewart voice* "All right guys, we admit it. We've been trying to hide it from you, but you found us out. We're trying to be eco friendly. We're a bit ashamed of it, but since we're now being open and honest with our consumers, we'll just say it. Oh, and why not really open up and show our underbelly to you: WE HAVE SOME AWESOME NEW SYSTEMS COMING OUT SOON!!!! GO TO OUR WEBSITE!!1!!11!"
Plus, #23 is utter crap and was just put on there so they could literally 1-up the previous article. I've bought a lot of Dell's, and for the money they're some of the best computers you can get, but this kind of lame PR stunt, when they almost had a legitimately honest and strong response, just pisses me off.
I'm pretty sure those domestic gross numbers are purely box office numbers (and Bloodrayne was $2.4MM, not $1.55MM (which was opening weekend), but that's just nitpicky). It's very possible, though I haven't found numbers to support the theory, that the DVD sales/rentals can add significantly to these figures. Does anyone know if generally how box office revenue compares to DVD revenue, specifically from the studio's perspective?
However, beyond financials, you're right - why would a studio want to associate themselves with such utter crap? All three of the movies you identified are listed in IMDB's worst 100 movies of all time, with House of the Dead claiming the worst of the 3 at the #20 worst movie ever. That's quite a track record.
I'll address a couple of comments to my post here.
First off, I'm not sure I entirely agree with the assessment of the NeoGeo. It sold only 1 million units (according to that same Wikipedia article) in your mentioned 14 years. Yet I remember seeing it in Babbages alongside SNES and the like - and to my 10-year-old eyes it was the big cool gaming system that was just too expensive. The 3DO, as mentioned, died a similar death. Both systems, along with the Jaguar, were ahead of their time. The PS3 is not - at least not with the current games available.
Rachel - I compared from launch, yes. And it started out the same, as I said, but at week 21 you can see a very clear drop in the growth rate, almost to the point of completely leveling out. Remember, these aren't weekly sales, these are total sales, so a leveling means they aren't selling anything. The weekly chart perhaps shows this picture a little clearer. As for the Wii, I originally had it in that chart, but pulled it out because it obscured the point. I said the Wii is selling better, that's not in debate, since it's already reasonably priced - what was important was that, despite a good start, the PS3 is falling behind the 360.
Most certainly not. The NeoGeo never saw a price cut and died a horrible death. The Wii on the other hand started at a price people were comfortable with (I think $250 is going to be this generation's $200 mark - $300 is a little high and will probably be next generation) and has sold phenomenally.
The XBOX360 released at what was roughly equivalent to the PS2 and XBOX release points (with inflation, yada yada). All of those systems showed very similar sales in the first year and then dropped in price after hype died down and early adopters all owned one. The PS3, while starting out comparable to the 360, is distinctly losing momentum at this point. It is sitting in a position of having numerous "hardcore" gamers (myself included) who really honestly want one but can't afford it - as has been pointed out, it's the affordability, not the bang-for-the-buck, that's holding people back.
Honestly, that's a darned good point. I loathe myself for saying this, but I agree with his decision to turn down the invitation. It wouldn't have mattered how well he argued his point (not that I think he could have), he would have been utterly eviscerated on that stage by the audience. It was a lose-lose situation and he was wise to decline it.
That said, coming up with BS reasons for such a decline was not a great idea. I mean, I RTFA, and after reading his email I kinda had the feeling he might have had a few too many bloody mary's before writing it. Hell's Angels? "I'm surprised, Dennis, frankly, that you have so naively taking this dodge."? He had to know this email would get published - I would think he might try proof-reading it.
The real problem though I don't think is Jack Thompson. He's a waste of our time, a lost cause. He's fanatical, and you can't change that. The problem is that the political world and the American people as a whole haven't figured this out yet. We need to work on educating them, rather than simply humiliating the frontman (which at this point has gotten far too easy). I think Penny Arcade would be awesome to suggest another debate - this time in the Senate. I think it's a fantastic idea to get some people who know about games to talk with him about it in a forum, but let's do it in a place that could actually matter, instead of just preaching to the crowd at PAX. Go get'em boys!!
I'll argue that the Wii controller could potentially not have a profound impact on controllers in the future. It will if we see games take advantage of it, but so far I have yet to see anything outside of Wii Sports (and potentially Wario Ware, which I haven't played) make truly good use of its motion sensor. There are plenty of games that make good use of pointing, but I find the pointer to be awkward (why oh why can't we calibrate it like we could with light guns?!) and well, mouse pointers have existed for quite some time.
Addressing the question at hand, I must admit that I'm (perhaps pleasantly) surprised that there's such a debate here. In my mind, Sony has held the monopoly on controller design ever since the first Playstation. In terms of giving you the most control within easy reach and in a fairly comfortable package I've personally found nothing better. I don't understand those who complain about too many buttons, especially on the shoulders. Your pointer and middle fingers are a complete waste up there without some buttons (heck, why don't we have ring and pinky buttons?). I see the ease of control of games like Tony Hawk and SSX on the PS2 to really show off the design - plus I can't imagine playing Frequency/Amplitude on any other system (no other system would allow you to hit buttons that fast on the shoulders). As has been said, the d-pad is far superior, and with the sixaxis we get motion sensing and finally a decent pressure-sensitive shoulder button. So, that's my two cents.
DVDs don't enter into the picture in that statistic though. Let's be clear: the game industry is larger than ticket BOX OFFICE sales (http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/12/19/2350234. shtml?tid=98&tid=10). It is far smaller than the movie industry (including DVDs, rentals, etc.) as a whole - which further shows why games aren't as mainstream as some are trying to argue here.
However, IBM has made no bones about the fact that the Cell is difficult to develop for (from the article on the Cell processor):
Recall though that developers had the same complaints about the PS2 and its "emotion engine". It will take time to truly take advantage of the cell processor. I will be buying my Wii and waiting a year or two to see what churns out for the PS3. The potential is there, yes, but whether or not anyone exploits it remains to be seen.
I would argue that it's a bit more than a graphics upgrade, especially on the part of the PS3. The Cell architecture will allow much more advanced AI and physics, among other things. This has the potential, if the developers take advantage of it appropriately, to really make some new offerings in gaming. We're seeing PCs take the same path with the introduction of the Physx physics card and a dedicated AI chip. The other big step is pure processing power harvested as the ability to present many more entities on screen. Look at Assassin's Creed or Dead Rising as games that have started to use crowd effects to great advantage.
The difference is that mouse is motion-input while a joystick is purely vector based (a direction and a magnitude - i.e. how hard you're pushing it). With a joystick you have a firm bound on how fast you can move your gun. Or, if you've turned your sensitivity way up, you'll often have more trouble with fine aiming. A mouse is much closer simulation of aiming an actual gun, and is the best way to do it outside of a lightgun (or Wiimote).
That's not to say that the dual-joystick configuration for PS2 or XBOX doesn't work for aiming. But you take the top Quake players (using keyboard/mouse) out there and match them up against the top Halo players (using XBOX controllers), and I guarantee you Quake'll win.
Oh yeah, nice going...
Anonymous Sun Employee: "Damn you chandlerc1024! Now I'm going to lose my over/under pool on how long it'd take them to notice!"