The Age of the Digital Download

It's coming. Before we know it we will be purchasing all of our video games from our couches. Attempts to make this the norm have already been made. The downloadable game area is a huge part of all 3 of the consoles, and now with the release of the DSi both of the handhelds as well. Not only can we virtually purchase tons of mini-games but whole retail games have been making appearances for download also. Sure most of them have had box copies in stores because of pressure from the big guns in retail, but soon that may end.

So what does that mean for our rights to the content we buy online? We really are just the guinea pigs in this experiment. Apple hasn't even figured everything out with music and we're diving head first into the deep end with our video games. So what happens when we move onto the next console generation? Do all of our downloadable games come along with us, or will we have to plug in old consoles to play them even if the newer consoles can play the physical copies of games from past generations? And when our old systems crap out on us, will the online servers still be up for us to redownload our purchased games?

With so many questions, it seems unwise to make hasty purchases now before we know fully what will happen in the future. Still, I'm as eager as ever to dive into the deep end of digital downloads. The games I've bought on my PSP are great for quickly playing without having to carry around a whole case full of discs. Now I can take it with me in my car and when I have time to kill I have a selection of either the longer adventure in the disc slot or many shorter ones on the memory stick. I just wonder if I'll be able to take the memory stick along with me to the PSP2.

I don't know what I should advocate the publishers to do to answer all these questions, but I do know I want some answers. If they are going to leave me to drown when they move onto the next hotness, then I'd at least like to know that now so I can make educated purchases. I can fully understand that it's not their responsibility to carry this stuff onto the newer technology, certainly nobody helped you transfer your vhs tapes to dvd, but it'd be nice to know. Staying silent just leads me to believe I'm going to be dumped, because if they had plans to help transfer your downloaded content I'd think they would be saying something about it.

I'm sure when changes come people will cry out in disgust at mentions of nontransferable content, and we will have a generation of poorly implemented systems to try to fix the outrage, but unless there is some sort of set guidelines in place for virtual content then no one will work to let you keep it. Not when its taking money out of their pockets to keep servers running and to design new technology that plays old purchases.