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"If recent Xbox 720 rumors are to be believed Microsoft's next console will support Blu-ray and finally catch up to its PlayStation counterpart.

Speculation has suggested that it also may not support the use of pre-owned games. We've think the ramifications of discarding used games would be pretty serious for the industry and deadly for a console pursuing that path if a rival decides against it. However, the trend towards digital distribution on the other hand might help in the long term.

Wester, like many forward-thinking minds, predicts the ongoing decline of boxed products and the rise of what he calls 'open' platforms like phones and PCs. This doesn't come as much of a surprise considering his company saw a record 97% of revenue from digital means in 2011.

It's a sentiment echoed by Obsidian man Chris Avellone, albeit in much stronger terms. "I hope digital distribution stabs the used game market in the heart," he remarked, explaining that it was so much easier to develop for a digital-only release; excuses for a buggy New Vegas release perhaps?

It would certainly alleviate the argument about used games being ditched somewhat, with the costs of boxing a game being cut hopefully leading to cheaper prices. However, long-established games retailers like HMV and GAME will suffer no end, and that's before you factor in the old fashioned people that just like having that game stacked on the shelf for access whenever.

Amidst claims in November of GTA V being exclusively digital, industry analyst Michael Pachter said there was 'ZERO probability', as "Rockstar in business to sell a lot of copies, and won't do anything that compromises that goal."

The big money is still clearly made in physical copies, Pachter believes. Besides, how many games have you seen developed with XBLA or PSN specifically in mind that offer the scope of GTA or Skyrim? It could be a death knell for the grand gaming experience if you have to download for a day to access it.

The question for you guys is, do you think the new generation of consoles should focus solely on digital downloads and ditch costly Blu-rays and other disc media?

Give us your opinions on digital distribution, and next-gen consoles in general in the comments below."

Not a chance.

Er, I would if that was the only choice. Prefer never to go digital though.

Nope because the market isn't ready - by that I mean a stable, consistent global set of standards and approaches across multiple devices for the purchase and long term ownership of digital content.

I do buy digitally, mainly on Steam, with some Apple/Android store, but it's obvious to me this whole area is very much in its infancy.

Heck I still tend to buy CDs and rip to digital as this is often the easier route if you want to use multiple devices/formats and only purchase the content once.

My erotic video collection says yes.

As long as I don't have to be connected 24/7 to play my singleplayer games I'd actually be fine.

Having said that, I prefer to keep physical media around for quite a while...

Today:   Hell NO!

In ten years: Probably

Guess I agree with everyone else. It's always nice to have a solid copy of your game if your hard drive would crash or anything. What's even worse would be if the big three went streaming-only like OnLive.

Virgin Media are doubling my broadband speed to 100Mbps soon, so I'd be ready in theory as speeds like that would allow me to download even the biggest games in a short amount of time, or stream games without any problem at all.

But watch as I quite happily stick with buying boxed copies of games for the foreseeable future.

I'm 100% digital with my music already.

Movies i'm like 70% streaming now with just a few blu rays here and there.

Portable gaming - My iphone is already digital and I'm all aboard being 100% digital with the vita.

Home gaming - I buy a ton of psn games partly 'cause their just so damn convenient. However, I'm not currently comfortable downloading "full" games just because they are upwards of 10Gb or more. This is:
A) slow to download
B) i have caps on my monthly download allowance
C) and (most importantly) unlike the vita I can't easily swap out hard drives. once that bad boy if full it's full and the whole delete re-download concept sucks. I have a 500Gb but between installs and everything else i already have 200Gb full. I'm scared to reach that max so I'm not willing to buy the "full" games. If they can make it more user friendly in the next gen i'm much more likely to go 100% digital.

I hate this idea things are fine now as far as im concerned good games for DL through XBLA and PSN just not the big budget blockbuster games. Plenty of businesses would be against this Best Buy, Gamestop dont think this will happen for a long time.