PS : it's amazing to see the numbers of people opposed to digital, especially with what's happening to the book market. Book readers are some of the most avid collectors and see how fast some of them are switching to all digital........( I have a collection of 1400 scifi-fantasy books and I went all digital 18 months ago and since then I'm reading 5 times as much as before and I don't miss my physical copies at all anymore...)

I don't understand why people consider all digital an inevitability when it is, for all intents and purposes, an inferior distribution method as compared to physical. Lets look at pros and cons ...

Physical Pros:

-Has worked for the industry for decades

-Allows the buying and selling of used games which results in lower cost for consumers

-Thanks to used games, consumers can play titles that are decades old on their original systems which will last as long as the consumer cleans and cares for their systems/games

-No requirements for Internet connection in order to access game library

-Physical copies allow for collectability and building of game collections and not just a list of titles a player on an impersonal game library window.

-Prices and deals are common between the myriad of game retailers

-Long since abandoned and unsupported systems like Ataris and Dreamcasts ect. are still functional even though the companies that produced them have moved on ... what happens to digitial systems when companies are no longer their to support them? If your harddrive goes then so does your entire game collection ... unless you back it all up somehow which means more work for the consumer.

I can't think of any Cons to physical so lets move on to digital ...

Digital Pros:

-Umm ... it is faster kind of since you can buy games at home ... just have to wait for download though. It is not that going out and buying games is a pain or anything since most people are already outside working, buying other products, ect. Unless you are a shut-in, there is no real advantage. In the time it takes to download a 2-3 gig game, I could have already made it to my local 24/7 Walmart and be on the way back home with a game.

As for cons, you would see the loss of nearly all of the advantages on the pro physical list. There would probably still be deals on games like there is with Steam, but no used games means that games, overall, will be more expensive. Systems that are more than 5 years old will be worthless with all digitial (look how fast Microsoft dropped Xbox live for the original Xbox). The buying of new games will become a rarity for many as they will be costly and unreturnable or resellable. At any time, publishers can decide to pull their game from the market meaning that it can not be obtained again ... this already happens on XBLA and PSN even with classics like Doom ... which was thankfully put back on ... for now.

Even if some of the above issues are addressed, the lack of used games in itself is enough of a reason to throw out the idea of digital only. It works for music because physical was limiting for that medium since it forced people to buy entire albums for one or two songs. Movies and games, on the other hand, can not be cut up and sold in a similiar fashion. Services like Netflix and Onlive are popular, but I don't think anyone would like a world where these services are the only way to access games and movies ... just look at their crappy selection, monthly fees to access content, and requirements for Internet access.

I just don't see this digitial switch happening anytime in the near future, and, if it does, I think many, myself included, will see pirating as a far more convenient option for playing games as opposed to putting up with DRMs, high prices, and a wealth of other problems that come with digitial.

I hope/think that digital and physical media can coexist with eachother for the forseeable future. Even the mostly digitial music industry still produces physical albums. People just seem to support digitial just because it is new without thinking of the consequences. There is no advantage to digitial for game selling, but there are definately disadvantages to it.

With all due respect you are comparing a $60 game to (Im a idiot who doesnt read outside of comics) I guess $5-$20(between paper and hard). I assume Kindle books are max $15 but closer to $5.....either way spending $5 to not own something (or $1 for MP3's) is throwaway money to most people $40-$60 is not.

I wrote this in yesterdays(and the once monthly) "do you agree with companies trying to kill the used industry" topic. I buy new in %99 percent of the time when its feasable(not paying $100 for some rare game just to open it). When I lose the right to resell, lend, trade (I have been lucky to have a job which allows me to keep my games and still buy new) value drops. I also dont want to lose the right to play a game tied to my account while a friend plays a different game tied to my account(which steam does not allow even though we are in the same house). Once those rights are taken from myself and gamers the value of the game dramatically drops. If I could buy a physical Copy of Skyrim for PC that lets me keep the rights stated above I would pay $60. SInce its on a shitty DD system I will wait for it to drop to $10. I have other games and things to keep me busy while that happens. DD games(as the current Steam model stands) are not worth more than $20 max. I know a lot of gamers that feel the same.

Prices of the production of games are going to continue to rise. Publishers are not going to want to give up profits and prices are going to stay stable. Look at XBL game prices. Plenty of games that have been around since the launch of the system are still the same price today as they were at launch. Many 360 Games on Demand are $10-$40 more than what can be had in store. I think this mindset from publishers will result in less games being made, less new IP's and less chances being taken on big games(the throwaway $1-$5 iPhone market will still do fine). The price and restrictions due to the DD system will result in less people partaking in the games industry. The contiuning greed and high expectations of publishers will be the death of the big game industry. I hope I am wrong.