this is how the world will become... even PC software will eventually just be the license key and tell you to download the software from a webpage. its how things are and where we are going. so you might as well except that fact or lose out on the future of technology.

Here is the major problem for the PSP Go.

It has features that appeal very much to existing PSP owners. But those owners are likely to own games already. Plus the price is a big turnoff.

If the older PSP models didn't convince sombody to buy it, then there is really nothing other than size that is attractive to the non-PSP owner. The PSP Go has nothing new to bring to the table. Plus the price is a big turnoff.

So you have a device that doesn't add perceived value to either existing or new customers. Yes, there will be rich people and enthusiasts that buy it, however those consumers don't decide success or failure of a product.

I'm well aware of this. You might want to realize that this would never happen on PSN since there's nothing to clear out of stock. Everything can stay there forever, and it can stay there forever at whatever price, because the middleman(retail) isn't there to overorder and reduce prices drastically. I enjoy that retail atmosphere. I check Target's clearance section every week for deals, and I recently got Fallout 3's DLC retail package for $13.33 and NCAA Football 09 for $7.49, and I never would have gotten those prices online. I know for sure not the Fallout DLC since I can see it sitting at full price right at this moment.

I really don't know why you would say Gamestop hates digital distribution. I'm guessing you've never been to Gamestop.com, where there's a fully functioning digital distribution service for PC games and strategy guides. Also I just went on Steam and looked at a few new titles for sale, and then checked GS.com and noticed the same games for sale. They also have The Orange Box for sale for $29.99 on the site(retail copy), which I believe is a Valve game, and if you want it, it ships in 24 hours.

My point is that even if you get rid of every retail store, you still have the problem that there is no online competitor for selling PSP games. This is why Steam puts on sales, online competiton. Without competition there's less reason to lower prices. Don't like that $20 for Patapon? Tough, because there's no where else offering it to you.

Hmm, well you have a right to your opinion, but I'm a little skeptical of exactly how valuable you think the flash memory is.

As for the digital age. It's a ways off. Consumer ignorance, and slow rural broadband migration rates due to Hughesnet and AT&T lobbyists and trendsetters are seeing to that. Honestly, it's not even going to work on a handheld.

What most of you think of as mainsteam, is still very niche in America, and as always, the trendsetter sets the trends. If any brits want a DD future, try to lobby for AT&T to extend their cable internet outside city limits, and tell our ISPs to cut out the FAPs, because with them, as games get bigger, there will never be a DD option for a 20gb game that will sell well enough to cover its development costs.

For instance, at last check, Wild Blue had a 5gb per month fair access policy. These are new changes to internet service in America, and they are backwards thinking limitations, not forward expanding broadband coverage.

If the PS4 came out tomorrow, with no disc drive, it would fail. Plain and simple. By the time our future gets here, we'll both probably be too old to care anymore. You want what's niche to be mainstream, but it's years away, and sometimes.....doesn't it make you wish you had a longer life?

As it stands now, I've owned every worthy exclusive on the PS3 for about 65 dollars, and I am still working up the balls to pay 40 for Siren.

The inherant flaw with DD is your purchase has no equity.

Games are finite. Like food or water. You only play them so much, and then you move on.

Now, on consoles(besides the PSPGo) you can take your old pile of shit, and flip it. Sell it to the person who wants it.

Then you can use that money how you want. Potentially to buy another game, you haven't played yet.

People like doing this. It's an extra option. Something that not everyone will take advantage of, but some will. It's what makes console gaming cheaper than PC gaming. It's an entire industry.

Your inevitable envisioned future of DD only gaming isn't inevitable because it furthers gaming, or because it is better than the present in any way whatsoever.

It is inevitable, because it makes the gaming companies MORE MONEY, and screwing over gamers never hurts the industry.

If you think FFXIII is gimped because of the 360, just wait until Sony starts putting size limits on games they'll approve, because of their DD strategy.

GS.com isn't a B&M retailer now is it. You rarely see PC games at their retail outlets and never see used PC games since it can't happen ever. They can run DD sales out their website, but they do tend to refuse to sell phyisical media that contains competitors products.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/digital-remains-biggest-threat-gamestop

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57111

of course this does not mean GameStop couldn't have a change of heart considering the future. Their CEO does seem to be becoming a bit more open to the idea of DD. Even though he still wants to rip customers faces off with used game pricing. (Pay-and-Trade is so much cheaper and is running my local GS out of business).

Still that $20 Patapon is being held up in price due to retailer influence and distribution costs. If a publisher didn't pay UPS or Fedex to deliver their games to Day 1 to GameStop or WalMart or any other retailer and instead could just male a bunch of box-art sheets and DLC codes it would cut costs to nearly 95% making it so the cost of the game isn't based on what publishing/advertising costs are rather development and  advertising costs that $20 Patapon title just because a $10 Patapon title that can see another price cut once all other costs are paid off.

That not true, I just bought a puzzle game on Steam for $9 that makes most puzzle games on consoles and handhelds look like crap. (I'll review it eventually for the site)

The reason why PC gaming is so "expensive" is because you need to upgrade every few years, but this really isn't a massive flaw because with new hardware comes more useability for everything. With consoles you can upgrade every few years and get an virtually unchanging environment which can cost as much as a simple upgrade for a PC that will make it last another few years.

Plus console games are freaking expensive with no real ability to expand the playtime without having to pay out an arm or leg for additional content..

Not if you rent them.

I see something of an impasse here between the participants of the discussion, which, in itself, is pretty interesting.

It'll be fascinating to see how the PSP Go performs. I think I understand many of the arguments presented here by various posters... and while I don't agree with many of them, I hope that my own arguments have at least taken root and found their way into my fellow VGChartz members' consideration.

I think I've said all I can say without repeating myself, so I'm going to leave the discussion. =)

This entire Gamestop argument is ridiculous on your part. I've already presented that Gamestop does DD, and then you say it doesn't count because their retail stores don't embrace it? Why would a retail store embrace DD? That doesn't make sense. Gamestop as a company has embraced it the same way every other DD service operates...on the internet through a website. End. Of. Story.

Your two links don't say anything about Gamestop hating DD. The first has a man working for GS saying that DD is a challenge for their retail business, but with them opening up a DD service on GS.COM, it seems their strategy is to embrace it and be a big dog on both fronts. Your second link should be obvious. Since GS.com operates a DD service, why would they sell a product that requires a competitor's DD service to run? That seems more like the fault of THQ and Red Entertainment for favoring a DD service over the others. Why would Verizon sell the iPhone when you have to sign with AT&T to use it? I'm sure if Dawn of War II didn't require a Steam membership to run the DRM, it wouldn't have been singled out by GS. Give me more Steam games GS has banned, and I'll provide you 20 games they both share for every one GS doesn't allow to be sold. Got any other lame links to prove a company currently practicing a website with a DD service hates that very same service?