I've read into some very ugly parts of the industry and any kind of maturity is a good thing that needs to happen. Also, really, would it be such a terrible thing if there were more games based on adult relationships that weren't, you know, terrible? At the moment I can only think of Catherine fitting the bill (despite the cover art), but I'm sure there are numerous other Japanese titles without localised releases which may also do a similar thing (eg: dating sims). It seems to always be some sort of side-quest or goal in western games, no matter how mature they are about it, which makes it fairly shallow on an emotional level.
Japan as a culture seems to develop more emotively-deep games than the west, which I think has given them an edge with sex games.
Also, pressing buttons for the physical action of sex will never be engaging in a video game and everybody needs to stop trying. Unless they plan on manufacturing sex-toy controllers it just isn't going to happen. It won't even come close.
Sexuality is a whole other thing and isn't mentioned in the article at all. It is pretty obvious that close to the entirety of the industry focuses on straight-male fantasy and that straight female and LBGT get practically no attention at all. I always figured this was a combination between developers not being familiar with the experience (which they wouldn't if they were a straight male, as a lot of them are), but also the money-guys who think that only hormone-raging, straight, 17yr old males are playing games. I've actually spoken to some of my game dev peers (a lot of them male) about how they would feel playing a role as a straight female or LBGT character in a relationship and every response was positive. Maybe I'm not asking the right people, or maybe the industry guys are wrong.
I hope they're wrong, because I'm pretty sick of companies deciding I don't exist or deciding that something that everything has seen a billion times over is still what people want from now until eternity.
