[mthg]

Well, the article is talking about a USC grad program, not really comparable to one of those video game only niche 'colleges.' The way I see it, it's not unlike other interdisciplinary sort of grad programs (e.g. robotics). In the end though, you're right in saying that a traditional degree in CS, with the raw skills in specialties needed in games like graphics and AI, is all you really need. FYI I am a game graphics programmer, with no game degree, just a CS undergrad degree from a public university who took a lot of masters level graphics classes in school and read a lot of SIGGRAPH papers.