[Jach]

Yeah, at some point it doesn't matter what language if the game is just game logic on a standard input and output layer that are already fast. Even high end engines like CryEngine often include a scripting layer in some higher level language like Lua that probably has GC, because it's nice to have for game logic that doesn't have the same constraints as other parts of the game. (http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC4/Lua+Scripting)

As I mentioned in another comment a lot of fun games have been made in all sorts of languages. That doesn't really make any of them suitable for games though, and you'll still find far fewer examples of game engines in GC languages.

[pjmlp]

Actually, I am old enough to have heard the same kind of argumentation against adoption of C, Turbo Pascal and C++ for game development, depending when I heard it (80's, 90's, early 2000's), because how we do it today is the only way possible.

Game developers have a tendency to only update their tools when OS or console vendors force them to do so.

[Zelizz]

Lua has a GC, but it's incremental and tunable. Video game scripting is actually one of the biggest use cases for Lua for that reason. Lua is also one of the fastest scripting languages, especially if you can get away with using LuaJIT.