I didn't know about that, and does it apply to every game? Surely games that require no internet connection could be left untouched as how would they know to pull support? Although you buy games through steam, and can launch them through steam I didn't know you had too. I thought some games you can purchase through steam, but not necessarily need steam to launch them. So if you back up your installs to disk (which you can do with steam) would it matter if a developer pulled support?

I very much prefer digital distribution over a hard copy.  I don't care about owning a physical copy of a game, DD makes things so much easier.

DD will take over some day, but the longer it takes, the happier I'll be.

DD is a rental service basically,you never really own the game and often services get shut down or stop supporting a game plus you have to always be online to play.

Physical all the way.
I own it and during the times my connection goes down I can still play my games.
If it's multiplayer then do it like I did when i was a kid..invite friends over.(prefer it that way anyway)

1. FMV is going out of fashion and most games don't need to use the kind of space burning techniques GOW III uses. At most the next generation games will be 15GB and thats with a LOT of audio. A median game would probably be about 9GB. HDD space doubles about once every 2-3 years, games do not.

2. The average game on demand for the Xbox 360 would download in less than 30mins, closer to 15mins ideal. As for space, see above.

3. You'll pay that anyway.

4. If your CD breaks/gets stolen its lost forever, with direct download you can get it forever. In addition, you can access your content anywhere.

Used to be I didn't play my games that often, because when I thought about playing them I first had to install them, then I'd have to put the CD in. And if I wanted to play another game, I'd have to put another CD in, taking out the one I was just playing. Small psychological barriers that added up, and in the end I often opted not to play my games as a result.

Um, you don't need to always be online to play the huge majority of DD games. And now with Ubisoft there's actually a physical media game without online elements that you need to be online to play.

For a lot of DD bought things you can also keep backups.

Well, aside from some people liking to collect games in boxes (and I think that's quite understandable and normal), the two major issues with DD only (and those are issues for the gamers, since they are the ones who get to use the format), are basically:

- can't resell if you don't like it/not replayable enough/just want to

- awful prices unless heavily discounted to do to some event. Paying the same for what cost less is not cool.

Hard Copy.

1) I can sell it
2) I can lend it out
3) I can borrow it
4) When Sony/MS/Nintendo go out of business or stop supporting the game I can continue to play it for years and years. I can still play my Super Mario Bros, but when my HDD on my PS3 gets corrupted and Sony doesn't support the PS3 PSN any more, my digital copy of Burnout will be gone forever.

Seem like Hard copy is a clear winner so far.....until our broadband service can provide the faster speed to the mass public and the cost of the price become a standard fees come with bigger download usage or unlimited, i really can't see digital distribution become a main source for movies or games. By the way, i really hated the idea of on live!!