Absolutely. I had a CS professor who lamented how much more time students spent playing games than studying, but acknowledged the fact that the video games industry is a gigantic stimulus to the computer hardware industry. Because games are always pushing the envelope of graphics and resource consumption, there is a reason for companies like Intel, Nvidia, ATI, AMD, etc. to produce better hardware. This hardware has led to benefits in the scientific computing realm, and may not have been developed without the bankrolling from gamers.