This is nonsense. Why even bother calling this an apology? This is like if I set fire to your house because I hated you, and then said it was wrong of me to hate you because I do not really know you, but I still feel that burning down your house was a necessary action that I would do again, just without telling you I did it because I hate you.
All he did was try to win back a few precious potential CUSTOMERS.. because with so many people in an uproar it was bound to be affecting his BANK ACCOUNT. So he issues a half assed explanation about his ignorant beliefs and expects us to take it as some sort of humbled apology and people are lapping it up like dogs to antifreeze!
If the man said "Black people will never make as good of movies as white people because they lack the creative talent" and then wrote something like this as an apology because he wasn't "informed enough about the Black community to have made his opinion openly" it wouldn't erase the fact that he was a bigot.
Same principle applies here. Ebert, go stick your two thumbs up your ass, I ain't buyin what you are selling. Come back to me AFTER you've played or at least watched someone play through Heavy Rain, Mass Effect, God of War, or Shadow of the Colossus and then run your mouth about games not being "Art". If for nothing ELSE, the visual settings in the freaking background in EVERY single one of those games is in and of itself "Art" in that it creates a believable and imaginative world that conveys the VIEWER and their emotions to a transcendent state of suspension of disbelief. If you can play a game like Okami and not feel that the world is rich, vibrant, and aesthetically awe-inspiring, you need to admit that you don't truly understand one whit about "Art" and that your entire life and career has been nothing more than you talking out of your ass to people too stupid to realize that your opinion on anything is about as vapid as Paris Hilton on a bender.
EDIT: One other thing..
To the people that seem to think that its ridiculous for people to make such a fuss over his original statement in the first place (or his apology for it) because "he is entitled to his opinion", keep in mind:
When you choose to SHARE your OPINION in a public forum, you are WILLINGLY and VOLUNTARILY placing that opinion out there to be praised or CRITICIZED. Sure it is his opinion, we ALL have opinions, but when that Opinion leaves YOUR BRAIN and exits YOUR MOUTH due to your desire to make it known, then you have NO RIGHT complaining when someone DISAGREES with your opinion as it is everyone's RIGHT to disagree. Especially if your opinion is in any way offensive. You have EVERY right in the world to say that you hate "Chinese people" but that does not give you immunity to the incredible backlash of people who are Chinese or like chinese people. If you make such a statement, publicly and openly, then you do so with the understanding that someone who hears or reads it will disagree with you, and may do so fervently. To then wax philosophically about how someday Chinese people may or may not prove themselves to be a worthy addition to humanity is not something to be taken as humility or earn begrudging respect. It just reinforces the stupidity of making the original statement publicly to begin with.
So just like his original statement, which by his own admission was made from the FAR END of ignorant, his "regret" for making that statement (also made publicly) earns him no reprieve from criticism. He still made an ignorant statement about something he knows nothing about, has no credentials to support, and that he underestimated the massive support FOR. That was STUPID. That was IGNORANT. And he paid the price for it by all of the anger that flew back in his face. Now he comes out saying he regrets saying such an ignorant, stupid statement but only because the people who disagree with him made their feelings clear.. it's almost an insult to be quite honest because he in no way acknowledges that Game lover Opinions matter, only that his own opinion is somehow superior to our own in the present. It is a statement of arrogance and he deserves every bit of vitriolic ire he has been receiving. Apparently he has not learned any lesson from this, even in his attempt to backpedal from it.
