Tell that to MGS4.

The problem is lack of naturalistic acting and emoting by video game characters, and plausible, relevant, real world flaws and motivations.  In games you basically get lip service to these things; mere affectation and facsimile

So, what are the counterparts to Persona, 2001, Apocalypse Now, On the Waterfront, Taxi Driver, Vertigo, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, The Seventh Seal?

You're welcome to think what you want, but pretty much all of the academic world disagrees with you. I think it's clear that games are still not accepted as an art form generally, and it is certainly true that you cannot major in video game studies at any major university (video game design is another issue, and is irrelevant to discussions of artistic integrity). 

It certainly has not been my experience while playing video games that the story telling is of high quality (generally speaking), and apparently it hasn't been Pixar's either. Specifically, in my experience, video games have remained either sophmoric or fragmented in their story telling, simultaneously restrained by the nature of interactivity and by the desires of their playing audience.

Furthermore, it's quite clear that games driven by narration are not the future of our medium. This can be seen from all avenues. The Wii and DS are the most obvious; they are driven by social, pick up and play games that focus on community and interactivity, and often are completely lacking in any story whatsoever (Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Brain Age, Nintendogs all have zero storyline, and Nintendo's other major hits like Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros, and Super Mario Kart have only the briefest attempt at character development).

But this is also true for the PS3 and 360, too. What games are selling on those platforms? The major hits, thus far, are GTA IV, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Gears of War. Of these games, Halo 3, CoD4 and Gears are all driven heavily by their multiplayer components; that is, the portions of the game that are completely lacking in narrative structure. Only GTA IV has any significant draw in terms of story, and even that game has begun to add on multiplayer, social, competitive experiences.

There was a time when single player, story driven games ruled the industry; the SNES and PS1 era. Final Fantasy VII (Final Fantasy's sales have declined consistently in recent years, with FF XII selling approximately half what FF VII did). MGS1 (Again, MGS4 is likely to sell approximately half of its original predecessor). Resident Evil was once on of the world's biggest franchises -- both RE1 and RE2 rank in the top 10 best selling PS1 games of all time -- but now struggle to break the top 50. In the meantime, Halo has risen. Call of Duty has risen. Mario Party has risen. Wii Sports has risen.

The future of our industry is not single player, story driven gaming -- it is social, generative gaming, in all forms. World of Warcraft. Halo 3. Call of Duty 4. Wii Sports. Wii Play. Wii Fit. The Sims. Nintendogs. Brain Age. Animal Crossing.

These are the major franchises of the day, the ones exploding in popularity. Virtually none of these have any semblance of a story, and the few that do clearly aren't driven by them (CoD4, as an example, is clearly selling for its multiplayer experience first and foremost).

It's true that games have typically not been great vehicles for storytelling, but it is understandably so.  In a movie, the story is the main element that engages the viewer with visual presentation and music following it closely.  In a videogame it's the gameplay that engages the gamer, and story is purely secondary.  Tetris didn't need a story and the story only got in the way of every Mario Bros. game.  Games can have a story, but since the story only serves as a motivation to keep the gamer playing the game, most developers so far have only made them barely adequate.  A game might come along with a great story that is not riddled with cliches, but if it controls like sit, nobody will buy it.  So anyone making a game will first and foremost pay attention most to the mechanics, then the grpahical presentation, and then the story.

I disagree. I would't care if a game had absolute shit gameplay as long as it had a brilliant storyline. Conversely I have a hard time stomaching games with crap storylines even if the gameplay is amazing.

Yeah, Ratchet FTW!

FFXIII will OWN everything! =)

I think Pixar trying to tell games to be more movie-driven is stupid. I don't think a 2-hr Wall-E narrative is really going to cut it on a 30 hour game, no? Games are bigger, and better than movie ever could hope to be when it comes to character development, plot, and 1,000 other areas.

Pixar is just jealous that more and more people are staying home playing better games than the crap that's churned out that are most movie.

And if Pixar wants to attack the gaming industry, don't you think they themselves should be mandating more narrative in their games like Cars, and Toy Story? I mean, you can complain all you want, but your not making things any better for the gaming industry despite "having better narrative" in the movies you have.

Just wait till Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out on PS3. This is when the shitting your pants will commence

Stick, where did this come from and did we read the same thing?

Rather than bring up every point I disagree with here, I'd just point out that Pixar isn't saying that games should be more like movies, they're saying they should be less like them; that is, games will not flourish as a vehicle for narrative, but instead are growing into their own, as a medium with extreme interactive potential (whereas movies are entirely based on narrative, and have no interactive potential at all). They specifically point out how well games are doing and how they're growing (where did you get the notion that they were complaining about games? The whole article is about them complementing games and how far they've come) to become their own medium, separate from movies.

Again, pretty much the only complaint they make is that games aren't suitable for narrative devices. Everything else they say is complimentary. I have no idea how you turned this blurb from Pixar into an insult, because it's certainly intended as a compliment.