The Daily Grind: Direct download or retail box?
Let's face it, with Steam being such a popular service these days (really, how many gamers do you know who don't have Steam installed?) and sites like Direct2Drive among myriad others out there, digital distribution is very commonplace. Five years ago, not so much. There again, there are bandwidth allocations/caps in many countries, and even some start of that here in the U.S. As such, we got to thinking about it, and considering the size of the general MMO, we wondered if we were likely to see more digital downloads coming up, or more people buying box copies? What do you think? Do you suspect we're on the way to a purely digital download future? Or do you think box copies will remain a staple since MMOs are generally pretty large in terms of file size? Or is there a third option, where we'll see more games somwhat like Free Realms and FusionFall where the game will stream to you incrementally as you explore new areas as opposed to coming in one enormous chunk?
