Starting from 7:57:

Will take a look at the video when i get home from work later, i think I've seen it before though.

Gotta go get ready!

I think it's pretty obvious that by "legitimized as a form of entertainment" he means Sony made gaming into something that can stand alongside books, movies and music as an accepted form of mass media. Atari didn't come close to doing that. The NES was a step forward. The PS1 pushed it over the line.

I'm quite shocked that so many people are arguing against this.

 Not even close... still:

Granted that technically speaking gaming appealed to a wide range of ages since day one, Nintendo did revitalized the gaming industry in the mid 80's while SONY did pushed it towards the older audience in the mid 90's.  It's been thriving since without the  bust of the pre-Nintendo days.

As much as I loved Atari (the original company), it's hard for me to give them that credit when it was very possible they might have destroyed the industry altogether.  Nintendo did originally come to Atari to ask if they would market the NES and share profits.  Atari refused, the NES was release in the U.S. by Nintendo themselves, and the rest is history.  What if Nintendo never released the NES in the U.S.?  I don't think Atari would have done to the market what Nintendo did and later how SONY pushed it.  Because of Atari's past failings both pre and post Nintendo, I don't think they would have handle the market well.  If nothing else Atari could have ironically delegitimized gaming by their screw ups.

3/4 are at least neutral. Seems socially acceptable to me.

That video posted above is required viewing for this topic.

All Sony did with the PS1 was target a more adult audience, which doesn't make something 'more mainstream'.

@Killiana1a: You didn't respond to me properly. "Video games are nowhere near the social acceptability as sports or other forms of physical recreation." That's all well and good but what about TV, movies or books? They're all mainstream entertainment and I'm sure they are similar to video games in terms of social acceptability when compared with physical recreation.

Well, you never know how it used to be, so can't say if there was any progress, but gaming is definitely way behind mainstream entertainment right now as you may see.

Though personal experience may not be a good representation of how thigs are, but I don't even need any factual data to know that gaming is lagging behind, say, movies in social acceptance. It's obvious for everyone who ever was a gamer, just ask and they'll tell you dozens of stories how their moms or wives didn't "get" gaming and thought it's juvenile, or how their dads use to be a gamers but quit gaming etc... usual stuff.

And btw it's US only, it's much worse everywhere else.

Television is the mass medium for the masses no matter age or income. People watch television.

Movies are in the same boat as television, but recent years have been hard for movie fans who want original masterpieces. We are seeing a lot of remakes and a lot of cheesy blockbusters lately.

Books are tough. It is hard to criticize them, but clearly we all do not read enough.

I would say television, movies and books alone are solitary, sedentary activities even in comparison to video gaming where one go online and play with others or invite others to play with them in a room.

All are mainstream, video games will be mainstream once the Baby Boomers die off and their antediluvian critical opinion regarding new forms of entertainment they deem as bad or lazy because they did have it when they were young die off.

Video games will be mainstream and I can see Morgan Webb and G4TV becoming the ESPN of video games much to the chagrin of Nintendo fans who loathe her due to her unrelenting criticism and glass half empty view of Nintendo.