Fact is Sony to go digital entirely would need to get rid of retailers period. Retailers want a profit and say one of the big three maintains physical copies the retailers physical or virtual will support them. Sony would need to maintain its hardware availability on online retailers and even some physical ones. Three generations from now the retailers will be more desperate then ever to maintain a profit and hardware companies would need to maintain product availability.
Going digital is inevitable the question is how fast and how bad will it effect us? Film will go digital within 10 years entirely. Games between 10-15 and music between 5-10. Unless internet changes.
Their are uncertainties that could keep DD from killing physical copies ever. A major thing is the economy things are getting worse and internet providers are desperate for more funds. In Canada data plans are now available for internet. Now instead of paying for high speed internet you buy a plan the one I plan to change to is a 150-gig plan. But word is within the next ten years the amount of data will become less and less and more expensive. I have heard from a friend at well can't say that plans could become as low as 50-gig for the current price.
We also fail the uncertainty of a global internet crash. The internet is not invincible and a major power outage or global catastrophe could destroy the internet as a viable format. Things like an EMP war which could render the internet useless to civilians.
Many variables to consider. Though if an EMP war occurs video games will not be a priority or even available. We will have far more important things to worry about.
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
