@harvest151 Except as the article clearly states, it's not just Democrats blaming video games, it's clueless politicians on both sides. Sounds like you are guilty of the same kind of bias these idiots are exemplifying.

@emperiox A name and a street address is enough to send someone mail, not steal their identity. You would need much more info to forge a whole ID. Not to mention, the people who did this were not drug cartels or terrorists, they were annoying script kiddies who probably didn't even know what to do with the data they basically stumbled into.

@emperiox Bad personal security practices are not Sony's fault and not their responsibility. Sony's only responsibility is to provide reasonable security precautions to protect customer data in Sony's possession (which they did fail to do), not protect customers from their own stupidity. If that means someone who is dumb enough to use the same e-mail/password combo on every site they go to had additional accounts compromised, it sucks, but they should have known better and hopefully now have learned better.

@ggregd As I said, Wine is not the best performer (it's biggest issue is still DRM/copy protection), but the blanket statement that it runs Windows games slower than native is simply wrong. With some games this is certainly true, but not all games. Besides, your "unbiased source" is over three years old and with Wine releasing a new version roughly every two weeks, it is severely out of date in its testing and comparisons. He tested Wine 1.1.35, while the current stable release is 1.4.1 and dev release is at 1.5.21. Massive performance improvements have come to Wine since the old 1.1.x series was retired. Additionally, the CXGames 8.1.4 software he refers to has been discontinued and long ago merged with CrossOver, which is currently at version 12.

@realguitarhero5 @juboner @dmarkonije Actually you probably will see those titles... in their already existing Android variants. They aren't as graphically brilliant as their PC/console counterparts and sometimes the gameplay is a bit lacking, but those big names are already on Android today. Additionally, the Ouya is integrating OnLive functionality out of the box, which brings their entire library of AAA PC games to the little console.

@JustArtificial

First - Ouya. It's already got dev/publisher backing, is going to put up a really good fight on the price front and may be the device that makes Android a valid gaming platform. Frankly, there is no reason Android can't do the kinds of games that a high-end PC or a game console can do, the only thing holding it back is the fact that it has only been used on comparatively low-powered devices like cell phones and tablets. Get a little horsepower behind it and things become very different.

Second - Steam already changed gaming, you just must have missed that. Frankly you are holding onto a past that is all but dead. Disks are never cheaper than the ridiculous sales Steam runs, unless you happen to live somewhere that is a haven for pirate disks. The available selection on physical media is severely limited, while Steam's thousands of games crush any brick and mortar's selection. Not to mention, there are some games now that are simply not releasing physical copies anymore, it's too expensive.

Third - Again, you are living in the past. The Steam name is a huge marketing factor on its own. It has built a massive reputation (not always a good one, mind you) in the gaming community and it offers a full featured experience in addition to the game (all the social extras and such in the client). Sure, the hardware components of a Steam Box would be really expensive at retail, but in bulk manufacturing, the costs come down, plus consoles are almost always sold at a loss to encourage the real money making: selling games. I don't think anyone is intending the Steam Box to do anything other than play games, so your argument about removing functionality is kind of moot. This thing is supposed to be a console, not a PC. You also seem to have missed the whole point that Valve has made with allowing others to make their own "Steam Boxes". They are trying to establish a base standard for PC gaming, much in the same way that there is a base standard for DVD players. It doesn't matter who made your DVD player or where you bought it, it will play all your DVDs. In that same way, it won't matter who made your Steam Box or where you bought it, it will play all the available Steam games. Phillips tried (and failed) to do that once before with the CD-i, but many feel that was an idea that was too far ahead of its time. Maybe that idea's time has finally come.

@rgrambo When did devs "embrace" DirectX over OpenGL? You do realize that practically every game that is not on Windows (i.e. all consoles and devices besides the Xbox) use OpenGL, even games that also do have a Windows/Xbox version. Every major game engine out there already has the option to utilize OpenGL or DirectX interchangeably. Devs default to DirectX on Windows because it is the easiest option on PCs right now, plus it makes "porting" to the Xbox that much easier, but they have not in the slightest chosen it over OpenGL entirely.

@ggregd Not to mention, products like Wine/CrossOver, which are not emulators, have little to no overhead and already offer the means for publishers/developers to "port" their games to Linux right now. It's not the best way to get a game on to Linux (not everything works well), but it is an option that MS has absolutely no say over at all.

Okay, how do "violent video games" have anything to do with the Connecticut shooting? My understanding is this guy was severely mentally ill, was not getting sufficient treatment and had access to guns thanks to his mother. Nothing I have seen or read indicated any kind of connection to video games until the NRA tried to publicly deflect the gun issue by blaming the Newton shooting on everything except the lack of reasonable gun controls in this country. Sad to see politicians and some of the media have once again fallen for that old trick.