Referring to the discussion about digital distribution of videogamesWell, it is nice to be able to download small games, though for bigger ones, I'd prefer a physical copy.
Reason for physical copy:
For one, I don't have that much disk space ^^;
And for two - what happens when your console breaks down?
On the 360 you can still de-tach the harddrive and put it on a new console, but for Wii...? I know you can download everything on an SD card, but what happens when you put that SD card into a different Wii? I'm sure Nintendo wouldn't want their download games to be spread over the internet or from person-to-person, so I guess the other Wii would not accept that. :/
For three, I don't like how on some systems, it basically gives the companies who made the games the option to remove that game from their store.
That already happend on 360, though the only thing I heard of was a downloadable version of a game that's also sold in store anyway.
Speaking of which, what happens if Microsoft closes their store in favour of - who knows - the Xbox720 or something?
They already closed down their Xbox 1 network, so it could happen, and then no one will be able to buy these games ever again.
The positive aspect however is, that "download games" allow smaller companies to release their games on the big consoles with less costs for distribution, so more room for experiments and innovations (but of course also more "Barbie's Virtual Aquarium 3"-kinda stuff), more companies who can try to enter the market, or even indie games made by individual people as on 360.
WHo knows, maybe yours truly might do one or two indie games himself?
Plus, smaller games are cheaper, so just strolling through the virtual shopping mall you might end up finding a game with an interesting concept you however wouldn't consider buying if it wasn't for a 5€ price tag
So there you have two sides of a coin.
The next extreme would be
"onLive", where you don't even own the console or PC where the game is running on, allowing games with high hardware requirements to run on low-tech computers as long as those can play simple video files and have a proper internet connection.
That however I find highly questionable, as you'd not only have to pay for the games, but also have to pay monthly for the service itself - and buying a game is entirely voided altogether if the service should fail and close down.
I wouldn't want to miss out on physical copies alltogether, but neither would I on downloadable games.
But I'd like to keep a certain level of control myself, as opposed to the company being in full control over everything, as it seems to me with OnLive.
It's just about right at the moment, only time will tell what things might lead to.