The Next Generation of Games systems

This is a very broad topic and I made it this way because there are two topics that I would like to touch upon.

Rumors of there being no optical drives:

It truly seems that digital distribution is catching like a wildfire in our community. I have a Steam account and I enjoy it. Particularly, because of how easy it is to use and the sales that they have constantly are amazing. That being said, there is still something about having that tangible box in your hand that I wish to cling to. I believe that this is because I truly feel like I own an item if I have it, whereas if I receive it via digital download I feel like I merely have access to it. The point I want to make is that digital download is awesome, convenient, and keeps me from selling my game back (more on this later). Being from the generation that I am from, I may speak for a majority of us when I say that we are not willing to have all things digital, not yet. We still see value in tangible goods.

 Another reason why I believe optical drives are still necessary is because of ISPs and the possibility of many of them moving to a data capping model. I am not well versed on the subject, but I have heard about it. If this data capping trend were to catch on and our next-gen console had no optical drives, you could expect that consumers would have a hard time supporting the next generation on consoles. Data cap limits could severely limit how much gamers could consume the games they would like to play. Especially in the fall months where there seem to be many major releases. It would seem that if the next-gen consoles had no optical drives then these console would make it hard for consumers to consume by design. I severely hope that our console creators have more sense than that. You would want to have a product that makes it easy for your customers to consume more of your products not the other way around.

In conclusion to this topic, the idea of having consoles with no optical drives would be a cost saving idea, however, it is not a very practical one.

Used games: Could the next generation of console successfully deal with this problem:

This topic was triggered by this article by Chis Morris on GameIndustry International.  He believes that Used games are going to be a part of the industry for the foreseeable future. I am inclined to agree with him. As a community we have again and again proved that we are "persistent and capable" of breaking down any walls that they try and put in front of us. I do not condone piracy, but I do understand it. Games are expensive and incredibly so during this economic time period. If I can save my self $60 and borrow a game from a friend I am going to do it. If you make that impossible for gamers to do, there are some who will find other ways to consumer the product without giving the publisher or developers a dime. So how can you keep used games in the industry and make some change on the side? EA's "project $10" does just that. It allow consumer to acquire secondhand games however some of the content is locked unless you pay a small fee. Personally, I think $10 is a little steep, but I applaud EA's efforts (I cant believe I am doing this) to work with a situation that is not going away rather than try to squash it like Capcom did with their Resident Evil DS product.

I apologize if you believe this article is a little disorganized and approaches a few tangents. Comments are appreciated. Next week I may write an article about EA. How they are closing servers of some games(I know I am late on this but I think it is important for me to discuss) and How I believe they are quickly becoming the industries evil empire.