downloading big games sucks; what V-r0ck said; except for those deals the games are always horribly overpriced; no manual and no other goodies (reading digital manuals sucks); can't lend them to my friends; if my steam account gets hijacked I'm fucked; only being able to select one language and everytime I change them, some games delete themselves with no warning and need to be downloaded from scratch.

I have no problems buying indie games on steam btw.

I personally like Hard Copy but I think its days are numbered.

Not next gen but maybe the gen after !

Handhelds - hell yes, DD is logical step for portable device, without the need to carry dozens of discs around, also the size of HH game vs HH internal capacity is fair

Home consoles - no wai, newest titles on PS3 are 25-50 GB, that won't be possible for couple more years

ops should have read the thread before voting. for gaming i would prefer a hard copy but in general i like things like you tube where it is based on the cloud. didnt like the idea of onlive though

Voted DD, almost voted cloud. Cloud computing is the future, and I imagine it will eventually seep into the game market fully. Onlive doesn't count (yet maybe), but imagine if you never had to buy hardware, you just pay a subscription fee to use the hardware, and maybe also the software (at a higher price). I'd imagine there would be no lag eventually, and you'd be able to have the best graphics at all times. On paper, sounds cool, who knows when it'll reach a point where it's worth it though.

But DD is the best right now for me. Physical copies are starting to turn into clutter. I've been moving around a bit lately and it's a pain to move all the stuff. Add in the amazingness of Steam.
Recent purchases:
TF2 for $2.50
Trine for $5
Torchlight for $5
Mount and Blade for $5
L4D2 for $30 (within a month of release)
Psychonauts for $2
Spellforce 2 + expansion for $7.50

Non-sports bargain bin games don't go that cheap around here.

When I move again, I'll be loading all of my games into a binder and keeping all the cases boxed up at my parents house. They'll probably stay there forever.

I wasn't aware that when i bought a game on steam i didn't own it. I can own games longer on steam as after I loose the disk I can always redownload the game. As far as I know I will own the games I have on steam until steam i no longer around. I have lost all of my previous computer game disk, can I get those back from the coompanies for free?

For some downloading may take a long time, but for me I can download more than one game in less than the 30-40 min it takes me to get to the store and back with a game.

Any time the pricing has been weird for me its always lower than retail stores for new games so i don't see how that is a con. Games to cheap? Not too mention devolopers always get a cut unlike with the used games I buy.

The biggest problem with DD is that it means that you do not have control of what you buy.

Mike from Morgantown

I dislike digital distribution because it takes away a real sense of ownership. You can't sell your digitally distributed games (some services may be an exception. I know with eLicense, technically you can but eLicense is one of those services that use online install activiation limits. You can only have the game installed on one computer at a time. If by any chance your hard drive crashes, fucks up, whatever, you have to contact tech support. Not sure how the process works but I'd imagine you either have to give them an online receipt or the info to the credit card you used to buy the game. Some may not feel that's a big deal but it does seem like a pain in the ass).

I will only buy digitally distributed games if 1) I can't physically own those games or 2) The DRM scheme used for the physical game makes it impossible to resell the game (ie. retail PC games forcing you to activate with Steam, Ubisoft or whatever) or 3) I can't find a functioning pirate copy (that is how oppossed to DRM I am. Companies that pull these stunts don't deserve support from gamers)

Thus far I've only bought 3 DD games (1 PC, 2 XBLA). Well if you count cellphone games, that's not true. But I use prepaid and I had a lot of excessive airtime that wasn't gonna get used up so it was a use it or lose it sort of situation. So I just bought cellphone games with some of the extra money on my balance). Anywho, the PC game was some obscure indie game that no one bothered to crack because it was relatively unknown (World of Mixed Martial Arts). And I bought Castle Crashers and Puzzle Quest for XBLA (my other XBLA games are either contained on a physical disc, giving it actual ownership value. Or legitimately free games like Hexic HD and the free games you can download off XBLA.) Castle Crashers is DD-exclusive so I had no choice if I wanted to play the game. And I got Puzzle Quest for XBLA because I wanted online-play. The DS version didn't have it and the PC version (apparently the physical copy is completely DRM-free) doesn't have matchmaking, only Direct IP play I believe. But I regret that because I got bored of that game pretty quickly and now I'm stuck with it. lol. The DS, retail PSP and retail PC versions are at least resellable.

Also I must point out that having a box, the disc and a booklet is all nice. I especially like the more old-school PC game packages (these slimmed-down more eco-friendly packages suck. lol). You got more for your money. But on the flip side, it sucks needing to find room for all these games (that's what resale is for though I guess).

The fact that is you SUBSCRIBE to the game , you do not purchase it. This means you have a right to use it as long as the service is provided, but not after that. If any publisher felt like withdrawing their steam support, you could, in theory, have the service withdrawn. THen you couldn't use them any more. It's also not allowed to resell the games, loan them or do any of the other things you get to do wiht games that are actually yours. It's like a short warranty. It doesn't make the product worse, but it means you have a higher risk of running into problems.

Weird pricing also includes differences between Euro, Dollar and Pound. It's downright mysterious at times. There is also very little transparancy in the pricing, which is always bad for the consumer. For instance, in the middle of the Empire: Total War sale the price of the Euorpean version was raised 50%.

But as I said, these three cons are really nothing I care about when I get the games for so little money.

DD is nice for additional content like map packs etc.. But I want a hard copy of my games.
If DD hasn't killed the CD yet, I doubt DD will kill physical media ever. The physical media will change (CD to DVD to BR etc..) but it will always be there.