@HolyMackerel
It's probably also an anti-piracy thing.
I'm against DLC at all costs. The day that I can no longer buy a physical copy of a game is the day that I stop buying any new games/consoles.
And on a different note, I'm against the kindle too.I've used one, and it's not superior to books in any way (except the cost).

sorry it was just a comment so u dont have to act like that

I don't have a little brother, just a older brother. He lost my game when we were younger and I never let him touch my games unless I'm watching him. 2nd I never put my games in my pocket, I have a cases for my games. 3rd I'm not worried about the future, take one day at a time so theres no worries of when there will be only downloading.

I have terrible internet if you want to download something it takes at least 8 hours to finish. So no I hate downloading.

I know this is a side debate, but it's relevant to digital games too. Before the Kindle came along I didn't read books. I like maintaining a library, but because I hate damaged books, I don't travel with them, I don't use them in situations that might damage them (baths etc), and as a result I don't actually find books a relaxing way to read.

After getting the Kindle, I read a book a week, on average. It's a reasonably inexpensive device, so I don't mind carrying it around, and it's rugged enough that I dont' worry that regular use will hurt it. It also backs up everything I buy to my Amazon account, so I'm not worried in the event that the Kindle does die. I just buy a new one and all my books are good to go.

Similarly, I find myself playing my digital games more than my retail ones. For whatever reason I prefer the smaller, bite-sized style of gameplay, and psychologically, 5 $20 purchases is less risky than a $100 one.

So yeah, I'm a fan of digital downloads. And there will be more and more of my kind as the technology gets better, broadband becomes better, and more developers and publishers work out what to do with the relative creative freedom that digital allows.

I wouldn't say digital is the best option right now, but rather it will be. When the day comes where we have no bandwidth limits in our homes (or waaay higher) and download speeds are like 1gbps(many have 1mbps at the moment . ), things will be looking more plausible.

And to those who complain 'not everyone has internet access but they have access to a store,' that's invalid, frankly. If you don't have internet to get your games and books, walk on over to your local Starbucks, McDonald's, etc. and grab your game/book/whatever. For most people, it's less of a trip to get to a Wi-Fi hotspot than it is to get to a store. Again, this will be even better in the future.

Your Kindle will get stolen? Your car could get stolen, your house could be robbed, so many bad things could happen. Having a Kindle WITH YOU at all times is arguably safer. If someone breaks into your house and steals your games or there's a fire, you can't possibly recover all that. With a Kindle, you lose $139 if you buy the best model and at the retail price. That's less than a Nintendo handheld, guys. You're not going to carry that around and risk that getting stolen are you? Oh, you shouldn't carry around your wallet either--you could get mugged!
/paranoia

As for the book sharing thing, that's another issue we'll have to leave to the future. Temporary copies or something? Who knows, they'll think of something. Anywho, buying a Kindle is more than just using it as an e-reader---it's a $140 assurance that all your books are safe. A lot of the complaints made about digital could be applied to physical but that's changing and digital appears to be getting better.

I do think that this forum is a poor case study for the adoption of digital distribution because many of the people on this forum only experience digital downloads on Nintendo consoles, and in all honesty, Nintendo's online strategy is so primitive that their concerns are quite justified.

But anyone who has experienced the kind of digital download policies that Sony, Microsoft, Amazon or Apple have will know that the experience is very quickly becoming one that is very consumer-friendly, secure, accessible and affordable.

I know I'm sitting on the early adopter fence here, but damn, digital distribution is the bright light to the future for the entertainment industry. The only vendor I am still somewhat uncomfortable with buying digital games is, ironically enough considering this forum, Nintendo.

Wholeheartedly agree there, Waltz. I've mostly stopped purchasing downloadable content from Nintendo (save for truly exciting games) but perfectly content buying games from services where you know everything works and will continue to work. Hopefully people will start to grasp the digital age, but we do fear change. I like my physical cartridges, but I'd rather have the game itself forever than constantly transport my gaming collection every time I move--and I can take my collection with me wherever I go.

EDIT: People seem to be forgetting something--3G. In the future it may be free for certain devices (or cheap anyway) so that cancels out the availability thing completely.

The space thing is a good one. As nice as having physical copies of things can be, they also tend to take up a lot of space. I like having entire collections of things on a small box for that reason.

It will die sooner or later. The entire world has gone virtual.

Yeah, Kindle prices are a problem... unless you pirate the books, I don't know if people do that. Used books are so much cheaper that it doesn't seem worth it. The same problem can be with games.. right now VC games are usually cheaper than used old cartidges, but used retail games will be cheaper than downloading the same title digitally, as long as they exist.

Good point. But he probably spends more time in the holodeck reading books that are actually digital incarnations.

@mnementh: did you miss the 'not in this or the next handheld generation, anyway' part of my post? :3

I reckon it'll be 2-3 generations before the industry is genuinely ready for retail-free consoles. Analysts are predicting 20 years... I don't think it'll be that long, but it's not a short-term transition.

Hmmmm Maybe Nintendo saw how the people hacked the DS just to put all their games in one cartridge so they wouldn't have to switch all the time. They might have worked in favor of system install due to the people so this feature sounds very real to me.

@WaltzElf At this rate, I think it'll be more than 20 years before we move along 2-3 generations. The Xbox 360 was the first current-gen release in 2005. 5 years for one console is a long time to be current, and development and expansion of the console is going faster than ever before with Project Na- I mean Kinect. The Wii and PS3 don't look like they're slowing down either, and the DS has been around for almost 6 years. The generations are getting longer as true hardware and processing improvements become more scarce - that's why hardware developers have been looking into new technologies like motion control and stereoscopic imaging.

We're getting a few incremental improvements on our consoles now, and that may last us a while before a new generation is revealed. I expect Nintendo might be the first, because of the Wii's obvious limitations in relation to advancing technology.

As for digital-only, I agree that it's the way of the future but the time isn't ripe yet - for major releases anyway. There's also huge resistance to it from the brick-and-mortar retail and rental conglomerates.

I spend more time browsing the release lists of VC and WiiWare online than I do in game shops.

I think I'd be fine with any medium going all digital, really. But if those futuristic electronic touch tables ever replace real board games in my lifetime, I will turn into an old geezer overnight yelling at imaginary people on my imaginary lawn.

I'd really like video games to go all digital-distribution. I mean, they're already electronic by nature. The physical media has no advantage unless compared to some evil form of DRM like Starcraft 2's we-assume-you-are-a-criminal-so-you-are-not-allowed-to-play-offline approach. They really should shorten the name for that approach.

As someone who prefers going to the library for books and movies, I can't personally see the advantage there, but it wouldn't bother me. I don't think many people own and re-read so many books on a regular basis that it's all that useful, though, and you can't swap books unless you assume all your literate friends also want to spend all that money on a Kindle.

And as for music, well, I listen to Pandora and FM radio mostly, so it doesn't matter to me. There are maybe ten albums I listen to over and over without getting tired of. Think I might get them in vinyl someday. Just seems more exciting to put a record on, like it's an event.

I'm pretty much as far from the ideal consumer citizen as you can get without getting into piracy, so I can't say I'd be all that affected, but I still find it very interesting. In the case of video games, it's much greener, too.

Thanku i see ur point

5 years isn't terribly long for a console to be current.
NES to SNES=Roughly 5 years
SNES to N64=Roughly 5 years
N64 to GCN=Roughly 5 years
GCN to Wii= Roughly 5 years
Game Boy to Game Boy Advance (the GBC was basically a 'DSi' sort of deal, unless you want to count the Virtualboy)=6/12 years
Game Boy Advance to Nintendo DS= Roughly 3 or 4 years
DS to 3DS= 6 years, assuming there's no long delay

Also keep in mind Nintendo wasn't always the first to enter the market and that I'm giving you the dates the other consoles were released, not when they were discontinued (aka a smaller amount of time). Not saying I disagree with you, what with Nat--err, Kinect, Move, and WiiMotionPlus, but the past does seem to disagree. Just thought I'd put that out there.

I don't just buy Nintendo systems, I'm also a Sony fan Microsoft fan. I have a PSP and I just bought Fat Princess:Fistful of Cake, of course I did not download my internet is just to slow, it takes at least 8 hours just for a dang demo and to download a full game is 12 hours I don't have time to wait that long! My parents work full time, my dad has to go out of state every week I don't see him till the weekend, and my mom goes to work before I wake up and shes not home until 4pm. When she gets home shes tired the only store my brother and I have time to go is gamestop while my mom is at a grocery store, we have no time to go to a place where we can get good WiFi. Also I always carry my systems and games with me so they wont be stolen.

@zss_shadow Yes, that's true really. I'm pretty sure it's not the same for the other hardware developers though (but it's nothing extreme, maybe a year longer at maximum). It's odd that I had that impression.

Well they've been stressing that they want to keep this generation around for a long time yet. Sony said they wanted the PS3 to last 10 years, and Microsoft doesn't seem to have a new console up its sleeve, even though by now they would have had it announced. Instead they're going the direction of peripherals. The PSP is pretty stagnant in terms of hardware now, and it's really only sold well in Japan (thanks to Monster Hunter), and yet Sony hasn't done much except incremental upgrades ending with the PSP Go.

EDIT: Actually, I'm on to something with this incremental upgrades concept. The 360 has had numerous incremental re-releases over its lifespan too.

I agree. Keeping track of a bunch of different game cartridges is a hassle and a waste of space. I got a PSP, and I mostly just download my games. In fact, I honestly wish they had gone with the PSPgo right from the start so I wouldn't have a bunch of UMDs that I couldn't use if I upgraded. Unfortunately, Nintendo ain't got the balls to change to something so drastic, nor do they have the skills and the know-how to pull it off.