Well exactly. there's very little, if any benefit to consumers from things moving to digital. The only thing I can think of is convenience of game being accessible from download date with no need to go to a shop. Even that is a pretty poor advantage.

Steam says hi. Since steam has been out it has been easier for me to get my games cheaper, find the games i want, find all relevant info on said games, and easier to purchase and download. The last few retail games i have bought (for my xbox and wii) sometimes i had to go to more than one store to find, and they all cost more than any of my steam purchases. The main advantage to digital is that it cuts a lot of cost out of a game. Making it easier to sell games cheaper, or for a game company to turn a profit. the only downside i have found is that you can not resell games used, which i never did as i did not have the time.

All digital handhelds: Yes, eventually.

All digital consoles: Fuck no.

There's no reason to go digital only.
There's plenty of reason to do day 1 digital release of every game( and use that to slowly reduce the market share of physical releases).

i don't think it will happen till after next gen. but i do think the next xbox will have the disk drive as a peripheral, and not need it plugged in all the time. kinda like an external DVD drive. but who knows.
atm too many places do not have decent internet, parts of europe you pay per GB download, PS3 games are something like 12-20gb which is huge for them
parts of the US do not have affordable high speed internet either.

As I told the guy(s) in the other-like topic...

successful Digital Distribution ONLY full video game systems are a pipe dream....nothing but 'HOPES & DREAMS' at the moment.

Onlive Console = Locked out of retail = failure 

PSP GO = VITA w/ hard media/ = Sony ABANDONED DD ONLY = failure 

0/2 = Negative = failure 

Someone feel free to PM me when DD ONLY video game systems actually stop failing.

How many $60 new releases have you bought on Steam?
It would be nice if you could buy digital downloads of full games for $10 on consoles but that's not going to happen.

thranx said:

Steam says hi. Since steam has been out it has been easier for me to get my games cheaper, find the games i want, find all relevant info on said games, and easier to purchase and download. The last few retail games i have bought (for my xbox and wii) sometimes i had to go to more than one store to find, and they all cost more than any of my steam purchases. The main advantage to digital is that it cuts a lot of cost out of a game. Making it easier to sell games cheaper, or for a game company to turn a profit. the only downside i have found is that you can not resell games used, which i never did as i did not have the time. 

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I love how Steam fans/users exaggerate the truth.

New retail released games on Steam are the same $50 - $60 that they are on consoles.

Please don't exaggerate please.

Where did i exagerate? That bolded sentace seems pretty simple. Its easier to find my games cheaper on steam than in a retail store(steam has a sale in the middle of every week, on weekends, on big holidays, over the summer, over spring break, over christmas break). I can also find out more info on said games at the very same spot. even other users opionoins. I tend to buy games over the christmas sale where they are 5-15 dollars a game.

SvennoJ: I have bought 0 games at 50 or 60 from steam(and only 1 or 2 at full retail price on disk, i prefer to buy used or on sale). I always wait for some kind of price drop/sale. So far the only game i have wanted but did not get is Skyrim. that is because it launched at 60 retail on pc instead of the standard 50. I dont want to support game prices going any higher so i will wait for it to go on sale also or buy it used.