Thompson: Educational games will lose you money - a bit shortsighted

Although most press attention goe to windows 7 (and for a reason, I think it looks pretty cool, just hope they are able to deliver on all their promises) I just read an interview with Microsoft's Neil Thompson who has warned developers and publishers that trying to create games with specific educational value will just lose a company money. (complete interview can be found here).

Thompson said that although titles like Brain Training are both informative and fun, setting out to combine education and entertainment was a bad idea. "We're in the business of producing fun, not education," offered Thompson.

I think this is a bit shortsighted. It might not be profitable right now except for nintendo but I think games and simulation offers great benefits in learning and training. The current population of kids is gaming a lot and educational games would make complexe material more accesible to them (and probably not just to them). Also it gives more flexibility in the way the material is offered (just think about the graphical options).

This can not be matched with the books as used when I went to school. I personally think educational games can make learning more fun and help make complex matter more understandable than books can do.