Why Digital Distibution Won't Work

There have been talk over the past few years about the video game producers moving to a form of digital distribution to get their work out to the public. No more going to your local video game store to pick up the new games that has just been released. Instead you turn on your system and download the game straight to your hard drive. This idea in the video game industry has come along ever since the invention of Itunes and the ability to download smaller games on your Xbox, PS3 or Wii. I don't believe that this can work for video games though.

The first problem that I have with this is I actually like having a hard copy of a game that I bought. For some reason it makes it seem more official for me that I can see the game and it's case instead of the game just being on my hard drive. I love going to a video game store at midnight or early in the morning to get a game I'm anxiously waiting for. It seems like an event when I do this and with digital distribution for all games, that won't be possible.

Another problem I have with digital distribution is whether or not it will work properly and efficiently online. Anyone who has tried to download a popular game demo that has been released on the Xbox or PS3 knows that when it is released and everyone is trying to download it at the same time, it takes forever to complete. And demos are only a small amount of MBs compared to a full, retail game. Can you imagine everyone trying to download Halo: Reach or the next installment of Call of Duty at the same time? It would take hours before you can finally play the game. Because of this, I will continue to hope even if digital distribution does become the norm in the video game industry that they will give people the option of buying a digital copy or a hard copy of a game.