That's good to know, I've never actually damaged a disk so I always figured I'd be shit out of luck if I did. Well that's one issues out.

 

Also the biggest flaw in this is that the pricing just doenst happen. If you take games off the shelves and go digital only, your at the mercy of what Sony / Microsoft want you to pay. If digital downloads on consoles were indeed say 20-30% cheaper on release date then I wouldnt have a problem and your point would be more valid. But more often than not, digital downloads (especially where M$ are concerned) are a damn sight more expensive online. New released on Xbox Demand can be £49.99, way more expensive than they ever have been off the shelf, and this is usually a good few months after physical release date. On Sonys side it can be even worse. They release some games online at a whopping £54.99 in the UK.

I fully expect digital to be the only way for distribution in the coming years, but to think its a better model for the consumer, especially with the pricing structures they have now is absurd.

 

My point was if they do (and if they want it to be successful they will) go with cheaper online downloads, then a lot more people would be more than willing to go for it. I believe Nintendo is going in the right direction by allowing the option of digital downloads but are only rewarding people with double Nintendo points at the moment.

As far as the "what happens in 20 years? " comment. I do understand the value of old games, I have a unopened copy of pokemon blue that's graded and worth 500 bucks, yet If I wanted to I could go play pokemon blue on the flash player on my phone or an emulator on my phone. Point is you will have access to your game and legal rights to play it.

True question is if technology will exist in 20 years at this rate of decline :/

 

Can, but refuse to.

 

There probably will come a time when the games companies can give or take the support of high street chains, at which point they will be free to undercut the retail prices without fear of them freezing out shelf space. When this time comes there probably will initially be a fairly decent saving for buying online vs retail. Over time, however, as buying online becomes the accepted way of purchasing games, and the high street stores fade out, the prices will creep back up again.

 

To use Australia as an example;
Nintendo charges $70 for new 3DS games... Physical wise, you can buy newly released games for about $60 or even as low as $50, and again, that's for new releases (you could also import, in which, you can get just about any pal 3DS game for $50 or less, new or otherwise)... Hard to justify buying digital at an optimal $25 difference :/ Additionally, there's the whole loss of collector's value, increased risk in losing those digital games should something happen to the 3DS and so forth.
Essentially, Nintendo is a quintessential example of how not to do digital, at least in terms of 3DS.

Sony, on the other hand, seems to be more competent in terms of pricing. New vita games tend to (with exceptions) cost loss for digital, rather than their physical counterparts in Australia. That, and the whole account system is certainly a boon. However, the cost of vita memory cards are somewhat of a detriment to those prices in that, one can justify the difference between physical and digital to be on par as result of purchasing one.

Subsequently: Whereas I have purchased vita games digitally, I have little desire in purchasing 3DS games digitally, as there simply is no compelling reason for me to go digital. (At least, not yet)

Conclusively; The way digital is being handled by the big 3 at present, it is not all too compelling in switching to digital. There may be the odd game that makes it worthwhile, and it's certainly a good fallback in case a game is unavailable physically, however, considering that costs for digital are generally greater (particularly when you consider the long term), and in case of nintendo, FAR great (at least, in Australia), it is unlikely that digital will replace physical copies anytime soon, as there is low incentive.

But forsooth, should it be cheaper than physical, it's likely that digital could become as prominent as steam, or to some extent, shift trends in favor of it.

On a completely unrelated note: To put digital in another perspective, it's at least allowed for PAL to get some games it's likely we would (Debatably) otherwise never get; such as Ragnarok Odyssey (vita) and Code of Princess (3DS). Ironically, both are somewhat competitively priced here at $40 and $50 respectively.

 

I'm speaking with my wallet. More of you guys should do the same. I put it like this:
In a box, on a shelf, in a store, or I'm not buying the games anymore.

Sure, some games are logged in through Steam or Origin, but they were still games I bought in a box, on a shelf, in a store. I have never bought "just a download" and don't plan to start.