About a week ago, Editor-in-Chief Sam Bishop and I were having a talk about downloadable content and its future in the video game space. It’s been a hotly debated topic as of late, both in the console and PC markets, so I wanted to share some thoughts with him on the subject. What I found out is that we both view it as a completely different monster, as does the rest of the industry, I’m sure. Is download only the future or will physical media still have a place in our homes?

It’s no secret that hard drives are getting bigger and people are becoming more technologically astute, as well as internet savvy. Fifteen years ago, the internet was a foreign monster to many households, but now it’s a way of life. It’s even extended itself to portable devices, the smallest of which can barely squeeze a couple lines of text on the screen from our favorite website. But that doesn’t stop us.

As it becomes easier for us to connect to the internet, it only makes sense that it would be easier for us to get content into our homes. Enter iTunes. Though it was hardly the first, it is one of, if not THE largest of all the online music distributors out there. Ten years ago, the idea of downloading entire music albums, TV shows, and movies was a pipe dream, but now we can do it with the click of a button. And storage space is becoming less of an issue, whereas ten years ago we were forced to burn everything to CD-Rs.

Even with that in mind, there is no definitive way to get that content. Consumers can use a myriad of choices, ranging from the Apple TV, a somewhat elegant solution, to Net Flix, which also offers a myriad of choices for the consumer, but none offer the fullest range of content or ease of use that would truly help download only technology go mainstream. Plug and Play this is not.

There are also other issues, most notably those of the hardcore variety. For those who demand the most out of their equipment, HD over the net doesn’t come close to a Blu-ray Disc running in the PS3. High fidelity picture and sound is a must when one invests thousands of dollars in equipment that is meant to deliver an eyeball melting, ear massaging experience.

But, if the equipment were in place, would the physical media experience matter to a consumer who still awkwardly attaches composite cables to their brand new flat screen LCD or plasma?

Sam and I arrived at a crossroads in our discussion. He supported the idea of physical media, stating that the utmost quality, as well as the sleek packaging, will always maintain mindshare in the mainstream. There’s also the notion that, as a species, we like to collect “things” to show off. I, however, believe downloads will be the future, with people purchasing a few physical discs a year of their favorite shows, and downloading or streaming the rest.

Granted, in the current consumer level environment what I envision is far from possible. But the push to broadband, and even wideband, could change all of that.

Location also plays a huge part in the download push, as a country’s internet infrastructure will dictate whether its citizens have the necessary bandwith to download large files quickly. Asia, with its dense populations, have infrastructures that far outstrip those of the western world, mostly especially Japan. With China and India becoming burgeoning world economies, it would only make sense to provide high speed internet access that even North America might not see for another decade. Huge population centers, as well as spending habits, determines content delivery and China and India may affect that delivery scheme in the next decade.

Combined, we could see a download only push in a little under a decade. The possibilities are endless.

So what do you think, fine readers: will download only be the future or will physical media still maintain its place? Let us know!

The gaming industry is almost always an exciting one, but let’s face it — it ebbs and flows, alternating between superb peaks of seemingly infinite gaming goodness and, well… early 2007. Lucky for us, the pendulum seems to be swinging in the other direction. Sure, the other guys saw a few heavy hitters land on shelves: Halo 3 and Mass Effect pushed units and no doubt provided for a few unplanned days off here and there. For Sony fans, however, the thrills were constantly on the horizon: Grand Theft Auto 4 was delayed, Home was delayed, LittleBigPlanet was delayed, and… well, you get the idea.

Many claimed that 2008 would be the year of the PlayStation — but it’s easy to dismiss such claims as wishful thinking, the delusional mantra of gamers grasping at straws. As we head in to the second quarter of the year, however, it seems as if such a claim may be coming to fruition. Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming out this month. Sure, Rockstar cozied up with Microsoft and the game is no longer a timed exclusive, but who cares? You’re not going to give a damn when you’re desperately looking for a way out of a 16 person firefight in downtown liberty city. You’ll be too busy thinking of things like, “where is the nearest weapon pick up?” and “what’s the easiest way to give my boss my 2 weeks notice (and then skip the ‘2 weeks’ part)?”. Shortly after GTA4 lands, guess what else is in the launch pipeline? I don’t have to tell you, you already know — Metal Gear Solid 4. For those that can’t hack the grueling wait, the Metal Gear Online beta will be going online in just over a week. Hell. Yes.

And what of Home? Okay, I’m not going to lie: no one has any idea what the heck is going on with this beast. One thing is certain though, development seems to be nearing completion as rumors swirl of a public beta “very soon” (cue collective eyerolling), and an increased advertising presence. Make no mistake: Sony wants to get this thing out just as much as we want to get our grubby hands on it. We won’t dare to make any precise predictions, but it’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ll be seeing Home sometime this year. And it doesn’t stop there, oh no. LittleBigPlanet and Killzone 2 both arrive in September. Wipeout HD? We’re told it’s on it’s way sometime this year. If you absolutely need a racing game, albeit one of an entirely different flavor, give Gran Turismo 5: Prologue a try. You can grab a copy on the (soon to be XMB-integrated) store, or pick it up at your retail store of choice later this month.

On the hardware front, European gamers will soon see a PS3/GTA4 bundle, while America and Japan will see a PS3/MGS4/Dual Shock 3 bundle. What’s that you say? The DualShock 3? Yes, indeed. It’s been out in Japan for a while now (isn’t that always the case), but Sony is finally phasing out the SIXAXIS (rest in peace) in favor of its heavier successor with the rumble that we’ve all come to know and love.

Developers continue to pump out titles for the PS2, and although it’s age is starting to show, there’s still over 100 million units sitting in people’s living rooms — that’s a huge chunk of gamers that companies will not be ignoring any time soon.

Things are really heating up this year, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than stuck in the metaphorical kitchen.

Hello fellow Total PlayStation readers and welcome to what I hope is the first of many weekly blogs about all things gaming, Blu-ray, and Sony related!

You may know me as Senior News Editor Warren Stallworth, the same guy who brings you daily updates on all things PlayStation. Well, it’s a little known fact that I’m also something of a Community Manager around these parts and part of that community management is putting a little something on this here blog page every now and again. We’re shooting for weekly updates, Saturdays being the most opportune day of the week to jot down some thoughts. I plan to stick to that schedule and give you guys something to read while you’re busy blasting, racing, or questing with each other on the weekends.

I wanted to open with a little something about myself but I figured that would be boring to read. I’m just like any other gamer out there: started gaming at a young age with my console of choice (Nintendo Entertainment System was my drug back then), toyed a little bit with online gaming before the MMORPG explosion, and fell in love with Sony around the middle of the PlayStation 2 era. I like to write (obviously) and I like gaming, so I figured I’d try combining the two and that led me to TPS.

Now that introductions are out of the way, we can get to the real meat of this entry: the future of console gaming. I’ve recently been having discussions with fellow gamers about how much gaming they get to do in a typical week. My peers are all over the age of twenty-five, so we have families and other obligations, and many times gaming gets pushed into the background. Some of my peers haven’t played their consoles (old gen or new gen) in weeks or even months, while others get an hour or two a day. Since graduating college or high school, none of us have been able to do marathon sessions like the old days.

As for myself, I play games for review. With my busy schedule, I typically play one game a week and unwind with a little World of Warcraft on the weekends. I still don’t put in any marathon sessions and I have a back catalog of games that truly are a closest of shame. I’d rather not think about all of the RPGs I’ve started and never finished.

Allow me to go off on a tangent for a moment; what I have to say is relevant to our discussion, I promise. It’s no secret that Sony won the next generation format war. Blu-ray is king… well, if you don’t count DVD. This works in Sony’s favor, since HD TV adoption rates will pick up sometime after February 2009 and folks will be looking for a fancy HD Disc player to hook up to their new fancy HD TV. Granted, if the PlayStation 3 doesn’t come down in price, that won’t be flying off the shelves the way PS2 did for those folks who wanted a DVD player, but at least Sony will do well for themselves with standard Blu-ray players. But therein lies the problem… if PS3 isn’t the AV equipment of choice for next generation players, will the mass market snatch it up the way hardcore gamers do?

Why is this important? Because, as a mobile society, we’re spending less and less time in front of our TVs and more time on the road with friends, commuting to work, or traveling. We’ve traded in our land lines for cellphones and our desktop computers for iPhones and laptops. Wouldn’t that also mean we’ve traded in our consoles for portable devices? Maybe.

A quick glance at Japanese sales charts quickly reveals the reality of that statement: Nintendo DS has sold more in its short lifetime than PlayStation 2 sold over the course of its seven years. The greatest console system of all-time was beaten out by a portable system that still hasn’t run out of steam. People are getting their gaming fix in smaller, bit sized pieces. Granted, that’s Japan and not the United States or Europe, but when the North American NPD’s reveal that Nintendo DS handily sells upwards of 500k a month during the slow season, something has to be up.

What of the PlayStation Portable? It’s selling. In fact, it’s picked up steam in Japan as the multimedia player of choice. People aren’t spending time in their homes watching media, they’re on the subway or out and about doing it instead, which means they aren’t buying PlayStation 3’s to either watch or play that media.

There are other factors involved and we would be here all day if I listed them. But portable gaming is becoming more important than console gaming. I believe this generation, regardless of how any company wants to paint it, will be far smaller than either of the previous two. To the vast majority, consoles just aren’t that important anymore.

But of course console gaming isn’t dead and that’s not what this is about. Did movie theaters die when home video tapes were introduced? No. But it changed the way Hollywood pushed film. More movies are either going straight to video or spending less time at the box office so the studios can capitalize on DVD sales. It doesn’t marginalize the box office, but it makes it seem a little less important than it was in our grandparents time.

So I pose a question to all of you: how often do you play your console systems and how often do you play your portables? Let us know and have a pleasant weekend!