I live in California, therefore it is more likely that my school is auctioning off its photo equipment just to keep the lights on. *sigh* Now I made myself sad...

I'm the oldest out of basically everyone in the family, including cousins. So it's basically me playing all my new games during the holidays, surrounded by 3,201 kids (I'm Mexican) holding disconnected Gamecube & PS2 controllers. Oldest trick in the book.

I dunno WHAT kind of nightmare I was having, but apparently I was in that consciousness limbo where you're half awake, half asleep, and I can recall perfectly waking up to find my doberman, Bruce, standing (as in, on his hind legs) over me while I slept. He's standing, all on his own, completely still. And then, in a speed slightly faster than reality, (like if you fast forward a DVD but only 1.5x or something) he walks to the doorway, turns his head to look at me, and disappears into the night.

Because it was my dog, I wasn't exactly freaked out when I was having that vision or whatever the hell it was, but the next day, after thinking about it, it's really really creepy insane weird. Like cut off my ear and start painting insane.

Additionally, if it's built properly from the ground up, it's not out of the question to have different kinds of demos (like timed, content removed, or limited access to name a few types) to supplant the rental concept. These demos can be distributed to just Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos. Considering that the companies will no longer have to pay expensive shipping costs or worry about disc replacement, etc, they might be happy to replace that cost with servers and digital space. K I'm done.

In my opinion, the main caveat to digital distribution is that there are still people that do not have internet either because they don't want to pay for it or don't have any interest in it. Or if they do, it's not broadband and downloading games may be cumbersome. Because GameStop is a physical b&m store, it makes sense that people think of it with physical media in mind. Additionally, people go there for advice, or just simply to browse and ask questions. Again, without internet or anything this is basically impossible to do if DD becomes mainstream. So, I think the easiest way for GameStop to survive is simply to work with the companies the way they do now, but for digital distribution.

For example, you still pick a game up off the shelf, still take it to the counter, pay for it with cash/credit/etc and GameStop uploads the game to your PSP or whatever. Afterall, companies use places like GameStop not simply because they sell games, but because they provide a place for advertisement and create a community to share ideas and opinions. Salesmen help push sales, convince those on the fence, and depending on the employee, will help you buy a good game and not a crappy one. All of that is very valuable to the gaming industry, and if companies truly work with places like GameStop and Best Buy and Wal-Mart, then it wouldn't be inconceivable to see cheaper than MSRP games. Certainly the concept of a "used" game is removed from the DD model, but perhaps a return credit and a removal of the game from your device is feasible.

Agreed. That looks pretty damn good. I've always loved the Road Rash series... always had excellent Rock/Grunge/Metal music soundtracks, and the awesome caricatures of players in the game were hilarious.

I can't help but see this device as a kind of "official" nod to the PSP piracy scene. PSP piracy is a bit rampant and it works off loading everything from memory sticks. It almost feels like Sony is catering to this audience, unless they pulled some magic firmware out of their hats on this one. If (or I should say when) that firmware gets hacked, this sounds like a nice upgrade to those who *ahem* never used their UMD drives anyway.

Best moment in the Metroid series for me is when baby metroid attacks you, realizes its mama, and backs off only to make a triumphant return by skull !@#$ing Mother Brain until she's ostensibly a dried up husk. I would give that a spoiler warning, but if you haven't played it by now, you've already spoiled your life.

Ugh, tuition was raised because of my stupid celebrity governor. This certainly would help.

I agree with a few people on here concerning the hackability of the device. I was never really interested in the PSP and the only reason I got one was after hearing of all the great things I can get going on it with custom firmware. Afterwards, the UMD slot of my PSP became useless and everything was just ran off of memory cards. Unfortunately, even the slim PSP was a bit of a brick in overall size, so I can't help but feel like this device was made for me since I never used UMDs and have a more "digital lifestyle" (albeit the darkside of the lifestyle).

I hope it gets cracked good and well.