Shouldn't ALL video games be virtual nowadays?

Technology is moving forward, and people are buying downloadable games online onto their consoles. This is with the Wii Virtual Console, Play-Station Network, and the X-Box Live Arcade. With the advancement of technology and the use of the internet, this is a very important step in the video game industry.

First off, let me explain compact discs. That's one of the major pieces of technology used to play games. It reads the disk directly with a laser. However, scratches on the disk and such could keep the laser from reading certain coding, so even the most minute scratches could cause data loss, even if it's insignificant. Cartridges, on the other hand, don't do this. They are directly sent to the console through the pins, allowing for faster loading times and less data loss. When a video game is downloaded onto one's console, the same applies.

Now, think about classic video games. I'm sure people know that there are over 700 licensed games released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but only 92 were released on the Wii Virtual Console in North America. With the Wii U, though, there's an even smaller library. In my personal belief, all older video games should be able to be downloaded from an online video game store so they don't die out. This way, game companies can earn even MORE money from games they made thirty years ago. It's genius! It's a win-win. Companies make more money from their games, and retro players get to play their classic games.

With that said, there is limited space on consoles to store games. However, with the advancement of technology, I'm sure something can be worked out. After all, there are small hard-drives that can hold a TERABYTE of data.

Who else agrees that games should be virtual?

Just another thought on this. With the advancement of old video games, someone could create a new engine that can fix the frame-rates of older games, as well as enable widescreen support. Either that, or just rebuild them from the ground up and fix the issues. For example, it would be nice to see a widescreen version of Castlevania or the Legend of Zelda.

The games that come out on the Virtual Console, PSN, and Xbox Live Arcade have to be worked on to run on the new hardware so it'd be unrealistic to get all games to run on all the hardware.

Build a PC and you'll have your wish.

Actually 2.5" HDs are now up to 3TB. :)

But to your point, that would certainly be nice. However, getting classic games to work on modern systems isn't always an effortless task for the companies that own the licenses. Sure, there are 700 NES games out there, but out of any system's entire library the vast majority of the games are mediocre at best. Each game that needs to be brought to a current gen console requires work, and for the majority of the library the sales that newer versions of these games might not be worth it. There are sometimes also additional considerations, such as licensing. Releasing classic games could also potentially eat into the sales of newer games in the same franchise if they are planning on releasing a new installment.

But from a consumer standpoint, yes, it would be awesome if each of these companies would just release their entire back catalog for virtual download.

-Byshop