well, I still plan on getting a PSP Go! feck the haters, I like the idea of a digital only portable console, makes life easier imo...

@Onyx: Reasons for music and movies to go downloadable are standardised devices and the existance of radio and TV, that both use the "downloadable" model.

We do already have an example about DD in games, in the form of flash games.

Movies are going to take a while longer than music to go downloadable, which is due to higher price, since people seem to care only about dirt cheap or free online content.

Games however, could work with rental model. Rent a game for a day for nominal price and after the time expires, the console removes the game from the system memory.

Movies aren't close to being there yet. There's nothing remotely popular outside of iTunes files for your iPod, but the size will cause it to never be the standard. We need some sort of top-box to take over, but none have gotten the job done so far. Until that happens movies will not move past physical media.

Regarding flash games, they don't require downloading and they're free. Flash games are not a reason to draw conclusions about the viability of $50-$60 console games, which is what I was talking about. Sony won't even bother continuing in this direction with the PSP once the hackers get it working backups like the old models.

iPhone/iPod touch didn't flop as a gaming platform. In fact, the popularity of such games has surprised most observers.

Apple has the huge advantage of not needing to support large and expensive games. It's definitely an edge to be able to start small and work your way up without having to support a legacy library. For Sony or Nintendo to remove all drives and ports from their handhelds is turning their back on all their existing library, but Apple had no such library.

Really good points, but everyone seems to want to write off the iPod as a gaming device, at least on the internet gaming forums. Of course as they write it off, more games are bought off of iTunes every day, with some days more games sold off iTunes than all the "Real Games" put together.

@Onyx: A lot of stores seem to be offering the music they sell with downloads.

The popularity of iPod did help a lot, since the popularity created a "standard" platform that could play all your pirated music just aswell. This is about the compatibility.

Movies also have the same advantage, everything is distributed in a stardard format, or, atleast what all players can support. At the moment the problem with movies is a number of proprietary services that need to compete with TV stations.

@Crasdown: Everyone are writing an MP3 player that can play games off as gaming device, in the same way they write mobile phones off as gaming devices and internet browsers as gaming devices.

About Blu-Ray, i am really happy that the PS3 brought Blu-Ray, i enjoy the movies that are BR-worthy (like The Dark Knight or Kingdom of Heaven), and the space for games gives to more posibillities (Like full RPGs, or amazing scenes in Metal Gear Solid, etc., i'm still hoping for a kickass open world in Rockstar's Agent), but if the mem cards cost (and i'm talking big ones like 32 and 64GB) were the same or less as Blu-Ray, i would prefer games on mem card any day... it's faster, more efficient and more reliable that optical. The thing is, if they can't put a lot of game space on a cheap memory card, it's not convenient, although your idea on older games on mem cards is interesting (if the PS3 still had those, like you said)... At least both companies came out with a quick solution for this: Installation (and i hope that PS3 some day gives the option of full installs)...

I still want that they kill the UMD in favor of memory cards on the PSP, and that's already possible and cheap on portables, but not on home consoles...

I guess we just disagree on this, I find some of the games no my iPhone to be pretty entertaining and high quality. Would the PSP-Go also be disqualified if it had a phone? Is being able to make calls the thing that qualifies something as a gaming device? I really want to make sure we're not arguing on the same side here. I understand that the iPhone was not intended as a games-first device, but I personally don't believe that makes it not a viable gaming device.

Hard to say. I have more games downloaded on my PSP and PS3 than I do retail games. I have maybe 20 virtual console games. I have about 30 XBL games.

I'm definitely pro retail copies. I love having something tangible. Still, it kind of snuck up on me that I've downloaded a lot of movies, music, and games. I guess as long as my investment is safe, it doesn't matter to me.