Over the last decade we've seen more and more mediums going digital. Most music is now pirated bought online through services like itunes and more recently streaming TV shows and Films through services like Netflix is becoming the norm. We are transitioning into an almost exclusively digital age; gaming is inevitably next to go, and that's a good thing... here's why:

1) It's far more convenient

You no longer need cluttered ikea shelving units to house your endless collection of plastic boxes, everything is organized and instantly available on your console or PC. Buying your games is easier than ever, no need to wait for a package to be delivered or a game to be in stock, you don't even need to walk to a store; all your need is a credit card and an internet connection. Buy your game, hit download, wait 1 or 2 hours for it to finish and play. Want to pre-order your games and make them automatically download? Existing services are either already providng that ability or will soon.

2) It's cheaper, for not only the consumer but the developer and publisher as well

Discs don't need to be pressed, manuals don't need to be printed, plastic cases don't need to be produced and nothing needs to be transported. This eliminates a huge cost; those valuable savings could either go towards to a game's budget, which may be extra important as development costs continue to rise or, as there is now a higher profit margin on each game sold, games may get even cheaper. Online stores like Steam have been the most successful, and these see frequent cuts on game prices and insane sales, other stores will surely follow this example.

3) Downloads don't break, consoles are cheaper

No more broken cases or scratched discs, even in the rare occurance that a file gets corrupted you can simply re-download that game. Remember the Xbox 360's infamous problem of scratched discs? The whole issue wouldn't even of existed if we got our games off a server. Imagine no need for a disc drive in your console, it's smaller, quieter, has no moving parts, and it's even a little cheaper.

4) It's good for the environment

Think of all those poor trees that have to cut down and turned into manuals, or that oil that needs to be turned into plastic cases. No trees need to suffer! No oil needs to suffer! Our planet need not suffer! Hell, even if you hate the environment, it means less recycling!

Okay, sure, maybe it won't be a collectors item anymore, maybe you won't be able to lend your games to people and maybe some will never feel like they truly own their games (though I've never understood that last argument), but the pros vastly outweigh the cons. Anyone think otherwise?

In theory it all seems nice and good, like pretty much every technology out there, but tell me the last time you saw something escaping the grasp of greedy companies and their antics.

Just some of the possible unfortunate consequences of digital-only distribution:

1 - always online gameplay
2 - limited lifespan for games
3 - paying extras for unlocking content
4 - in-game advertising
5 - account hacking
6 - killswitch in case of mods or cheats
7 - one copy per player is mandatory

Also they could shut down your entire library if they feel you step too much out of the line, like M$ did with some X360s a while ago. And so on.

We've seen Digital Distribution as the norm for PC gaming for years, there are very few gams that require 1. 2 and 4 hasn't happened, measures are taken to prevent 5, 3 has happened anyway, not sure what you mean by 6. 7 in an unfortunate con, but like I said the pros outweigh the cons imo.

It should never go digital only. Box package is fantastic, love the artwork and the disc, blu-rays don't get scratched anyway.

Digital is the most convenient though. But it will create a monopoly if it goes digital only, especially on consoles.

Yeah but we are talking about consoles here, who should implement cloud-based storage much earlier than PCs. It would make most of what I mentioned possible if not likely depending on the economics of the market.

Outside 7... this all happens to physical media as well.

i'd rather have a a physical copy of something. I'd rather have a collection of something. I just feel a better since of ownership with physical media.

Quite weird "pro" point when you talked about iTunes which doesn't allow multiple downloads.

And I like how you think it's better for nature. Do you know how much power is necessary for servers, big clouds, etc.? Check what electricity a single keystroke on google.com needs and what the consequences are for the environment (cooling the server centers, etc.). You could argue that we go all green now with power through wind and sun. But we do not even know yet what negative things wind power may cause.

A lot of "cons" have already been mentioned. The biggest for me is actually that you just get a license to use something while owning a disc or cartridge has some sort of real value although it's no difference. But a big difference for my brain lol

DD is very convenient but having a long background in PC gaming I'm just unable to put much value in a download. I have always had tons of downloaded games I got for free and the feeling I always had was "this is not worth my time, it was for free".

So I like my physical copies. It's my incentive to actually pay for a game rather han just download it for free. Also it feels I truly own it. Plus the package is nice to look at and it reminds me I have that game and that I actually should play it.