I cant COUNT how many times I have heard that on this Site.
And I never believed it, but I started to. :(
I guess thats what I get for listening to a bunch of 15yr old experts, lol.

The argument was Direct Download will never work for huge next-gen console games that are between 9GB to 30GB+ of data. (At least not with today's broadband technology)

We're talking about smaller games for a handheld.

What I find ironic is that the PSP offers digital downloads as well physical media but this is never mentioned with the DSi. Nintendo forces the handheld buyers to physical media but Sony offers users a choice, a big difference. When users have a choice one is going to dominate over the other but if Sony forced users toward one side, would the UMD have the negative attachment towards it today?

In my opinion one will never really terminate the other and will coexist because of one thing, not everyone will have internet or will want to connect to the internet just for some entertainment on their off days becoming more of a task than it should. The world population is said to be around 6,783,421,727 (in the billions, if every country was equal with technology) I don’t think servers can handle that much traffic; XBOX Live can barely handle the low millions.

and yet services like Steam, netflix, hulu, ect get more popular everyday.
and now the xbox is offering full size games to come directly to the console, via XBL.
I dont think it matter whether we are speaking about handhelds or consoles, the fact of the matter is--they were wrong. :)

@Someoneplays: low millions? so xbl is just MAXED OUT every night huh?

Sony has been offering full PS3 games for download on the PSN for years now.

GT5 Prologue
Burnout Paradise
Warhawk
Etc.

Btw, the DD argument was based on Bluray quality movies. Not PSP sized games.

And if you don't see how unfeasible it is to download 50GB movies currently, then there's nothing else I can say to convince you otherwise.

Lets just say, if it was feasible enough right now, then there would be TONS of services offering Full HD 1080p uncompressed Bluray quality movies for download right now. And if it was feasible, millions of people would be downloading 50GB movies from those services each day.

Btw, Xbox Live's 1080p service will be compressed and low quality. For it to match Bluray's quality, their movies would have to be around 50GB... and I just don't see that happening. Not to mention, a 60GB hard drive for the 360 already costs $100.

um no.
there have been a sh*t ton of areguements about DD in reference to games on this site. infact you should check black mavericks comment right under my previous. and i quote: "The argument was Direct Download will never work for huge next-gen console games that are between 9GB to 30GB+ of data. (At least not with today's broadband technology) ". So next time open your eyes(and read), before you open your mouth. :)