Java for Games: too slow?

There is a mistaken belief amongst many commercial and hobbyist games developers that java is not suitable for games development. This is based on data that is 5 to 10 years old, and a misunderstanding of Java.   If you take a C++ program, compile it, and wait ten years, it will still run just as slowly with all the same bugs it had 10 years previously. If you do the same with a java program, you will often find it runs faster - on the same hardware - ten years later, and with fewer bugs. Up until 1996, Java was very slow. Until 1998, it was slow. Until 2000, it was fast enough for most apps, but still on average only 50%-75% of the speed of C++. Since around 2002, Java on average is less than 5% slower than the best C++ code. For most applications (including games) java is within 1% of the speed of C++ code; many of the improvements of the last few years have concentrated on making up the performance gap, so that now - finally! - Java is a realistic practical alternative even in games development - where RAW SPEED is usually the most important factor. Note: Java also finally has full access to hardware-accelerated OpenGL; see the JGF tech page 3D graphics section