Champions Online... >>>

Well yes, ditching boxed games for the home consoles would be suicide, and I can't see that happening any time soon.

Portables are a different matter, however.

Yeah, I don't think Apple feel they've commited suicide with the iPod.

That said, the Persona PSP game apparently sold way more physical copies than digital copies, so I suppose distribution method varies between handhelds, too.

I would assume he was talking about home consoles since they've already "commited suicide" with the PSP-Go.

The mobile dl-only model is great s'long as the file sizes aren't too crippling. Price is also a factor too when you look at how much a copy of something like Beaterator will cost you on the PSN store compared to the 8 quid Play were selling it for this week.

For "under the telly" consoles though, I seriously do not think that even the most ninja-equipped BB connection could deal with a big multi-disk phat-arsed BR release (like the special edition of GT5 f'r instance)

I'm horribly old fashioned though. I like having a shelf full of plastic to remind me how remiss I am with my wallet.

I doubt physical media will ever die until the there is suitable internet across the entire country to support it, and even then it would need to be phased in over decades.

If Sony ever snap their fingers and say "Pow, now we're dig-dist only", that immediately shuts out anybody without internet, anybody without broadband, anybody who pays extra for going over a download cap, anybody who lives out in the middle of nowhere and will never get broadband, anybody who isn't tech-savy, anybody who wants to buy a game as a gift, anybody who wants a physical object that they can trade later, anybody without enough HDD space, anybody who has internet but doesn't have their PS3 hooked up to it, anybody out in the shops and wants to make a whim-purchase,

AND SO ON.