IDK... a real game programming language... I really don't care what he writes it in, as long it is a good game. However performance wise C++ or something else would be better
but meh beggars can't be choosers.
Just some facts on why Java development might be preferred:
C++ development takes approximately 8x longer... only 4x longer if you have a super team. (I have never met one of these teams.)
3D game performance is mostly related to the GPU speed unless your code is really bad.
In some cases, Java can out-perform C++ because it's optimized per-platform at runtime and a C++ exe (usually) is optimized to a common platform when built. Games sometimes go through great pains to include multiple compiled versions to avoid this... and they might be able to swap them out at runtime as needed. Java hotspot can optimize based on usage.
Java easily deploys on several platforms simultaneously (which is why Mythruna deploys to Mac and Linux)... and lately or soon can cross-compile to many more. (Android is one example where jMonkeyEngine apps can deploy to "out of the box" if the footprint is right and a jME dev is working on cross-compiling to iPhone)
Really, the biggest weakness of Java for something like games is the unpredictability of the garbage collector. This is what I struggle with for Mythruna. (I have most of the GC issues licked and we think we may have found a place deep in jMonkeyEngine where the last GC troll is lurking.) And at any rate, control of the garbage collector is improving all the time.
And considering that the most profitable games are written in Flash makes the whole discussion kind of funny from a certain perspective.
But I know what you mean. I'd probably not write a cutting-edge triple-A 3D, to-the-metal, engine in Java... but I sure as heck would consider it for the rest of the app. And let's be honest, none of us are trying to implement Farcry.
