What a fucking absurd idea. Unless they're planning on games still being only DVD sized 5 years from now and, even then, putting at least 1TB in there, this won't work for anyone who wants more than 10 games.

yes... and a nintendo console called the  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_iQue

and also the new n-gage service (not the system) does this also.

I doubt this.

First ,you would have to have monster hard drives.

Second ,download speed arent up to date with the kind of stress this would generate.

Third and the most important.Stores dont get nearly any profit from selling the machine.They make up for that selling games.SO ,the sell the machine to sell games later.BUT ,if they arent selling games at any point because everything will be downloadable....I doubt they will sell the machine at all.And ,if they dont carry the machine the 720 would be the worst flop ever.

Once again, let me reiterate, these are the exact same arguments that were said about mp3 players. Fiber optics are going to be more of a jump than 56k to 1.5 mbps. They run at about 100mbps. That is amazing. You theoretically wouldn't need a hard drive. Just a boat load of ram(enough for a good sized buffer) and a good bit of fast cache. You could just stream the game whenever you wanted to play. 100mbps is faster than an optic drive reads. You guys are limiting your imagination here. Theoretically this would not be limited to games, any digital content; software, audio, video, anything 1's and 0's could easily be done on a system with networking that fast. Operating system could even be streamed to the system. Today's desktops are going to be the way of the past, Google knows this, Microsoft knows this.

 MP3 is a compression standard that allows you to crunch already small quantites of audio data into 1/10th the space.  Games have been growing by leaps and bounds in terms of data.  They get like 5x bigger with every generation.  A 100% digital delivery service would only be viable if the price of gas goes so high that its no longer economically efficient to produce and deliver goods via physical transport.  ...I suppose that's possible, but I don't think your own reasoning really holds up, from a technical standpoint.

 "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station-wagon full of backup tapes, hurtling down the highway at 55 mph" -- a quote from a classic text on networking. 

Backbone network speeds are not increasing at the rates you imagine them to -- just the delivery point speeds are, really.  M$ would have to commit themselves to selling cheap mini titles to pull this off anytime soon, unless the world enters a really major energy crisis first -- and then you're probably not going to be wanting a new, power hungry XBox anyhow.  You're gonna want some new farming tools, to help feed your family instead. =)

^ One of the reasons I and many others(from the sales figures of the movies and the movie industries worries indicate) have not bought into BLU RAY. I think BLU RAY has 4 years left maybe 3 tops.

So wait, if the games would be streamed, how would you be able to play your games, say at a beach house with no Internet connection? How will you be able to play a system that has to be connected to the Internet in order to play a game?

^^ Well, the idea is that internet will become ubiquitous in the future. Much like electricity or water.

 Haha, nice spin :)

We all know the reason they went for 360 instead of 2 (nope, not this 'complete experience' crap). Xbox 2 will just sound inferior when compared to PS3. They had to have a 3 in there somewhere.

 For the next generation, here are some candidates:

Xbox 4ever

Xbox 4U

Xbox 480 

Speaking of 4. It is an unlucky number in Japan since 4 "shi" in Japanese also means "death". Many Japanese products avoid using the number in their name. Would that be the case with the next Playstation?

Few problems with this.

1. My internet bill is already high enough if the speeds go that high.... well that's going to be a monster of a bill.

2. The costs of games would most likely stay the same.... or go up.... (They'll come up with excuses all companies do.)

3. The Internet is not needed as much as water and eletricity.

4. This would actually turn alot of people off to gaming. (It's kinda like books or movies digital is okay but there's nothing like being able to hold the real thing.)

5. The reason this works so well with music is because you might like a track from a CD but not all the tracks of the CD and it's cheaper to get what you want as a download off that CD then to buy the thing in a store.