Never had surround sound until around 2003, was playing UT2003 with surround sound and ever since that day I will never go back to a 2.1 system.  Being able to tell where someone is shooting at you just be listening, unbelieveable.

omg, i have a major deja-vu here... it feels like the whole "OMG, i can't even tell SD from HD TV".... but with sounds. ;)

playing a 5.1 sound game with standard TV speaker means you are missing out a lot, much like playing HD content on SD TV.

whether you admit you can tell the difference or not, it's there, and many MANY people do appreciated, regardless whether you know them or not.

Because for 99.9% of owners it would make very little to no difference.

Nobody in this thread claimed such a thing. People can tell the difference, they just don't care enough to go out of their way to set it up. As for HDTV's, penetration is only so high because every new TV nowadays is HD, on top of them being far smaller than SD.

By the way, to the people talking about footsteps and whatnot - I simply don't care enough about winning console games for such things. Back in the CS days, I often played with headphones, though (who didn't?).

sound is as important as anything for me,i couldn't game/movie without my lovely amp and speakers,which sound great by the way,

i would get a quality 7.1 if i had the cash and big enough lounge,

my folks got a brand new sony 2.1 system for xmas and i have to say it was brilliant for movies the sounds were amazing for the blockbuster type films

what is the difference between a 5.1 and a 7.1 is it just more speakers

i don't know many people without an hdtv,but then i don't know lots of people,lol

Its like this I guess.

I've been into about 50-60 homes in relation to my job working in cable installation.

About 20 of those people actually have a stereo system to go with their TV.

About 14 of those people actually had it hooked up properly. (I fixed the other 6 for free, im so nice)

About 12 of those 20 people had more than 2 speakers.

About 5 of those 12 actually had them set up in aproximately the right locations.

Finally only 3 of the final 5 actually had a setup which was good enough to actually get anything out of their surround sound setup.

So whats that? 3 out of 50-60 homes had a setup that could even take advantage of 5.1 sound.

Well weather anybody cares about it or not my 7.1 Energy, Pioneer, LG 50" plasma set up is perfect for experiencing the games being developed today especially the ones coming from "Sony's first party" developing houses :) they are totally taking advantage of the Blu/Cell capabilities of the PS3.

I'm sorry you are only playing HALF the game with a 2 channel setup, sad but a very true statement this generation.
Sometimes I even wonder if the web/magazine critics even play (review) taking full avantage of games, I have never read anyone talk about the "localize" sound option on games like Socom, its insane, it totally brings a new level to the game.

I just think that it should be advertised for us in the back of games, "7.1 Lossless Audio!!" ;)

this+sometimes i game on my pc with a decent 2.1 more than what i need

They don't exploit it because they know that the overwhelming majority of gamers can't perceive any difference, and it would therefore open them up to lawsuits for deceptive advertising. Sony is arrogant beyond belief, but it isn't dumb.

Are you talking about 1 PR 3 years ago to affirm they are arrogant. Most of their representative are good and very respectful speekers.