Also, something tells me that Mr. Darling thinks the height of "gaming" is flinging birds, cutting ropes, and growing crops on a virtual farms. He probably thought Quake was too complicated.
I don't think digital-only is the worst idea out there. However, I do think there's a financially feasible way for gamers to have our cake and eat it too. GameFly has a process where if you want to buy the game that is currently checked out to you, you pay online and the game is yours while the box is sent in the mail to arrive a few days later.
Why couldn't we do something similar with next-gen game distribution? For example, you could log in to MS or Sony and purchase the game online. At that time, a boxed disc is sent to you from an Internet retailer (for example, Amazon) and you have the option to download the game immediately or wait for the disc to arrive in the mail. Either way, you've eliminated sales and distribution that goes with the brick and mortar stores.
That being said, my biggest fear is the price of hard drive space. With digital-only, you will be forced to buy the biggest HDD option (think Vita's $100 memory card).
93ChevyNut's comments