After E3 2009 I took some time and thought about the future of video gaming. Not so much about the games, because right now I'd just like to watch from a distance this casual market that is slowly polluting the current video game market. I focused more on the consoles themselves and the medium on which games will be delivered in the supposed future. I remain tormented about my indecisive nature about the given matter. Yet, allow me to elaborate on it.

The supposed future is digital distribution, and only digital distribution as a form of media. Future consoles such as OnLive are silent horsemen of the apocalypse that announce such a major shift, but Apple has been doing it pretty well in the past with iTunes and similar applications and services from other companies that deal with digital media. To be honest, even for a young fellow like myself, such a rapid development in technology has been spectacular and slightly frustrating to watch. It was as if yesterday I spent 4 hours searching through our families collection of VHS tapes or manically using up six or seven floppy discs in order to copy a simple DOS program. I remain somewhat old fashioned by still calling DVD discs as CDs, simply because of the same shape, yet I haven't purchased an empty CD to burn stuff on in over two years. And now there are small hints of getting physical forms of media completely out of the way, relying solely on a digitalized form of storage and delivery.

Once I started noticing that they could really start using this form of distribution through known console networks, such as XBL and PSN, I immediately started disliking the entire idea. My reasons are rather subjective on the matter, but that matters, because I firmly know that I'm not the only one with such a point of view. One of the most obvious reason is the simple gesture of receiving your purchased game and adding it to your collection of video games. I found myself as an avid collector of video games, and I'm not really that into it, that I'm going to buy the entire Playstation 2's library or strive on buying only collectors editions of games, but I like the feel of actually physically touching a game case and placing it into my existing library. It is a somewhat primitive gesture of displaying little trophies that are the games that you've collected, proudly displaying them and watching your library grow. The fact that it's physically viewable adds to the magic. Looking at a list of downloaded list of PSN games however does not give you that feeling. It's just a list, and lists don't necessary impress, 'ya know.

Another reason, which may be completely subjective is the means of getting this future digital distribution. I myself am not fortunate enough to be located in a highly developed and known European country, or wait, screw that. I myself am not fortunate enough to be located in the bloody United States, where this digital distribution is being developed and handed out. More specifically, I am referring to the means of purchasing this magical future form of distribution. Credit cards and similar don't really like the fact that there is an ocean between our continents and having two PSN accounts doesn't help as well. Even the one I use for gaming doesn't list my correct native country, simply because my country doesn't have the Playstation Store support. Crazy, huh? Not all is magically handed out to you, and simple frustrations like this occur on a daily basis. But that's not the point, the point is that therecould potentially be a large barrier of actually buying products from the web and not, because of cultural financial differences.

Yet I find myself selfish on the given matter. I discovered this when I noticed that I preferred buying certain PSP games from the Playstation Store, rather than looking them up on eBay or in our local electronics shop. Adding the fact that the price of the glorious US dollar is incredibly cheap to our euro, I liked the idea of having all of my games on my PSP's memory card and avoiding disc swapping. Once I discovered my obvious hypocrisy influenced by simple practicality, I found myself baffled with what I really desire. If you look at it from a purely logical and objective viewpoint, digital distribution is one of the most ingenious things ever thought up and it really is the future. Yet companies like Sony obviously understand the situation as well and when the PSP Go! was announced, they decided to keep the 3000 series in production along side with the newer model, that solely supports digital distribution. A financial move that may cost them and bite them in the ass alter on, but at least they're trying to shift the video game industry in this direction as well.

In the end, it's more or less obvious that in the future we will have a console with over 600 GB of storage, and have all our games installed on it, and every other form of media, such as music and movies. And that this also poses a question for the publishers, which could potentially break down the market, so it's actually slightly scary to think about it. A key question that appears is how fast the transition will be made and how painful will it be. Will Microsoft or Sony completely ditch disc based distribution in one move or will they gradually allow dual support and similar. I mean, you have to accept the fact that we've been using physical media since stone tablets were introduced or in the modern world, something simple as VHS tapes were used, yet they've been completely destroyed by digital media. I'm not really thinking about Nintendo in this situation, because they're rather traditional in this sense, which I respect. Still using cartridges for the N64 was a bold move, but that doesn't mean that Nintendo doesn't know how to nudge the future (motion control).

Time and experiences will tell and this is a cautious tale to be observed in the distant or near future. When they'll announce implementation of digital media into our brains, that's when the digital crap will really hit the fan. Other than that, I've got some other topics to dwell upon and since it's the slow season in video gaming right now, I'll most likely use up the time for writing more and playing some older titles. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go on some Persona 3/JRPG rehab, like playing manly man games and listening to manly songs and walking around the house with my shirt off. Basically anything to shift my attention from the spectacle that was my forever dearest Persona 3.