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When things start to go south, the blame game is always easy to play. Therefore, it's not all that surprising to see Hollywood pointing the finger at the video game industry in order to explain its slumping ticket sales.

According to the Cut Scene, DreamWorks Animation CEO and Hollywood veteran Jeffrey Katzenberg blamed games for the "soft performance of 'Shrek the Third' on DVD compared to 'Shrek 2'." Yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact the third installment in that movie series wasn't half as good as the original. This isn't the first time that video games have been blamed for putting a crimp in other entertainment industries, like television, music and books. Gaming remains on a rapid rise while most other venues have either remained steady or experienced a bit of a decline, and the movie industry ain't doing so great. Of course, we gamers would like to offer a perfectly logical explanation for this phenomenon-

Perhaps Hollywood could start focusing on making some good movies, and better yet, movie theaters might want to think twice about charging $10 to see a 2008 film in a 1988 setting. Many individuals have far superior picture and audio quality at home, and the "mystique" of heading out to see a movie in the midst of a hundred other people died out long ago. Furthermore, the gaming industry has advanced a great deal in the past quarter-century, while movies haven't exactly gotten better...bigger, longer, flashier and dumber, yes, but certainly not better. Just a thought, movie-makers.