I think if handled wrong digital distrbution will destroy gaming. DD needs to NEVER EVER replace hard copies of discs...at least not for many many years.

Reasons why DD will fail if anministered in the next 5 years.

1) Not everyone has T3 lines. I don't know about you but it takes me many hours to download a gig or two.

2) Not every console is connected to the internet.

3) While some adult are fine with downloading their games kids would rather get their games at store.

4) I beleive most people would rather own a hard copy that they can trade or lend to friends.

5) Its still easier to buy games at the store than wait for them to download. Who here wants to download a 50 gig game?

6) Hard drive space. HDD space will run out really quick if you are installing a bunch of games to it.

The ideal time for DD is when most of the consumers have super fast internet speed and really big hard drives. This will not happen in the next 5 years. Some people still have dial up in parts of the US. I myself just got DSL 2 years ago.

In conclusion; if digital distrabution happens soon it needs to only be an alternative to hard copies and not a replacement.

IMO DD needs to never be the norm period.

Digital Distribution is almost certain to be an alternative rather than compulsory for at least the next ten years. After that I don't know.

Edit: And why should it never be the norm? As long as everybody has high speed internet it's a better distribution system.

Think of all the college kids, like me, who don't have cars and have to go bugging every person that they know! (that's me. I'm starting at Nyu tuesday.) We NEED this desperately. Especially cause of...*gasp*.....GAS PRICES!!!

the internet at my house is slow as hell it takes like 12 hours to download a gig so im not for digital distribution. Also i like to have the hard copy of the game better than a digital version.

It won't kill gaming by any means. Even if your reasons were all valid (and I dispute a few of them) there will be some companies that are slower to go digital, so if digital proves unsustainable many (if not most) companies will remain unaffected.

it wont kill gaming, just all game section in stores.

 You are concerned that the game companies are going to prematurely distribute their products solely through a method that most of their customers will not be able to use? That makes no sense.

Depending on how it's applied DD can be very nice. Steam (apart from it's crappy beginnings) has shown how well DD can work.

XBLA and PSN are being supported very well also. I'm not going to call them a complete success as of yet because it depends on how the offerings transfer to the next console of choice but they are off to a great start.

There would still be things like VGChartz. If everything was DD, that type of knowledge would probably become more public. I mean we are considered by some Xbox Live developers their primary source of software sales for their own games. We must be doing something right with our numbers.

About 4 years ago I though video streaming in the net is impractical, as it zaps a lot of bandwidth... but look at it now.

Digital distribution will only kill traditional retail, if ever. But not games.

There are people who likes to get stuff on small pieces and at small prices. This has been the pattern for success of cellfones (especially DoCoMo's height).

The iPhone downloadable apps are making a killing now. And soon, indies will have a crack at it when the XNA Community Games are opened to the Live Marketplace. So it could be the next console paradigm shift (it has been with PCs long ago).