I liked Phil. I do like the little jab someone made about him in the comments of that article though ("Rumble is a last gen feature")

Apple as the industry? i dont see that at all and the rate at which people seem to jock apple is crazy.

Well DD is quite popular though and the groth goes fast:

By March 10, 2006, three million downloads had been made.^[17] By January 30, 2007, that number had grown to 20 million.^[18] The service reached 25 million downloads on March 6, 2007^[19] with 45 million downloads projected by the end of 2007.^[20] On March 27, 2007, Microsoft declared Uno to be the first Xbox Live Arcade game to exceed one million downloads.^[21] Nearly 70 percent of Xbox 360 owners connected to Xbox Live have downloaded an Arcade title^[22][23] with the attach rate being 6–7 titles per user.^[24] Original games typically receive 350,000 downloads in the first month.^[25] Titles have an average 156% financial return over twelve months with the first two months of sales accounting for just 35% of total volume.

Sadly this are all numbers from before 2008 I wouldn't be surprised if the total XBLA games downloaded has exceeded 500 million...

Need to ask mrstickball for some numbers;.

you won't grow old nicely my friend I'm affraid.... might not be next gen but one thing for sure it is eventualy going DD accross the board.... ecological reasons alone will be enough... especially with the price of oil and derivative skyrocketing....

and for other about shelf space... DD only doesn't mean you couldn't have box art in the shop.... you come grab the box... go to the cashier with your XBox key they load the game and you are good to go.... I can see myself still go to the store.... just to check out the good deals... the new games some trailers.... talk to the shopkeeper etc.... it's not because of technology that you have to be a social pariah or a lazy ass for that matter....

I would hate to see a DD only generation, I wouldn't quit gaming or anything, but something IMO would just 'be lost'

DD for games can't come soon enough. Now that blockbuster went out of business and other places are to follow its getting pretty hard to get console games affordably.

OnLive has the right idea, renting games online for 3 days for 5 bucks. Pure win!

Can't agree with that.

Internet speed, caps, and regional limitations will hold off said future for a good while longer. Trust me.

I was thinking more in this vein:

"Did you know Disco Record sales were up 400% in the year ending 1976? If these trends continue... 'eyyyy!"

It's not that far off. 

Likely not by 2014 or whenever the new machines come out, but governments in all the major markets are upgrading their internet systems as we speak - Australia recently announced a big upgrade for example.

I'm certain though that online retail stores will be much more substantial with the new machines. Sony has its Qriocity setup which offers movies and music - what's stopping them integrating games into that service and doing away with the PS Store? Their tablets (s1 & s2) will have games with PlayStation support only available through DD. Microsoft will definitely be there as well, they are probaby slightly ahead. Gamestop, and other retailers could start to offer full games through online DD stores down the line.

You also don't have to worry about countries that lag behind, they can be sold older hardware and physical games. 

Some say the PSP Go shows that consumers aren't ready for such a shift, but there was a lot of other factors holding the PSP Go back.

Anyway, I think that a DD future is prety clear. The world just needs to sort out online security, data storage and internet systems a bit before it can be properly implemented. 

I think that isn't a great way to go, since it would make consumers at least the educated consumers feel as they got the shaft because the country infrastructure isn't supportive. While some might say this 10-20% consumer base might not be as important, they still produce 10-20% of the revenue. Honestly outside of Steam, I haven't really seen a perk of buying games on XBL or PSN vs Retail copies (Namely when they are priced horribly compared to retail copies).

DD only is the future, but right now it seems like a distant future, at least for home consoles with huge downloads spaces. Video Game Handhelds should be able to develop by next generation (As in the PSP3 and the next Nintendo handheld), assuming they don't just die off from the mobile cell phone market.