And I'll cover the PC side!

With Steam, you can put your games on as many systems as you want, no limits! :P

Ok, didn't know that, thanks for the info :)

I remain unconverted, mainly through stubborness, but at least I know I can play Braid without running out and buying a 360 just yet!

This is a good deal for the platform owner (MS, Sony, Nintendo) but a horrible deal for any publisher.  The platform's would allow buyers to instantly find "used" copies for a lower price than a new copy.  Sales of new copies would completely dry up after a month.  Sales of new online games would last longer if they had an active community but sales of single player games would completely disappear.

Although the platform owners may have the legal right to sell the "used" copies but publishers would move away from these DD services or they would implment some form of activations to circumvent it.  If a publisher recieved a cut of a used game sale then it would almost need to be on par with their cut of a new game sale.

There are quite a few pitfalls to digital distribution. Lots of opportunities to screw things up and give the customer a raw deal.

But like Stickball says, the incentives are in place to try to give the customer a fair deal. I'm slightly concerned that I might have to pay again next generation for games I've downloaded this generation. But this would raise a huge barrier for me as a consumer to upgrading to the Wii 2 if I can take my disc-based games with me, but not my downloaded games. If Nintendo is smart (and they usually are) they'll find a way for me to transfer my VC and WiiWare games over to the next generation of hardware.

The company who figures out the best model for digital distribution will have a substantial competitive advantage over those with inferior models. The cutthroat competition in the console market is fantastic.

I share your hate digital distribution

The reason I don't like digital distribution is because I don't actually own the stuff I buy. Sure, I can play it but I want to own it, too. I don't want the rights to do just anything with it. I just want to own it. CDs and such aren't that hard to store unless you're very careless with how you keep them, and them it's your fault if something happens to them. They don't take up too much space, either. If they do, you can probably afford to re-organize your things and maybe you can even afford to get new space since you were able to afford the games in the first place.

They only better thing in digital distribution is that it's easier. However, you've got to be pretty dumb or live under a rock or something if you can call traditional stuff difficult in any way. It might take up more effort but not much.

I am not cool with digital distribution of girlfriends...as those things you need to...umm...touch. But not having a hard copy of games, movies doesnt take any enjoyment from the media. Therefore I disagree...

Even though, digital copy of a girlfriend would have great benefits as well.

Unless, of course, some console making company gets out of console business. Then all of their servers will be shut down and none of the games will be available for those systems. Also, MS is already dropping out most unpopular games from their lists.

nope...not yet.

i think there is one thing against digital distribution, exchange, you cant do that with digital distribution , and most people like to exchange games with their friends. Anyone thinks the same?