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Format wars could soon be a thing of the past if digital downloads continue to explode. We list the reasons for and against digital distribution changing the game for good.

As gamers wonder which format will emerge victorious from the HD war, many claim it might be outdated by the time the war is over. Digital distribution is what many think will be the new medium of storage. With Capcom recently making use of Valve's distribution program, Steam, to distribute its older games, maybe more developers will follow. Let's weigh the pros and cons of digital distribution:

Pros:

Lower manufacturing costs:
With digital distribution, all the data is streamed through electronically eliminating the need of the production of the disc and casing. All that is needed is a server to store the data and have it ready for download to whoever decides to purchase the game electronically.

GameStop:
It would most likely put GameStop out of business. With everyone purchasing games through digital distributions program, gamers won't be hassled about pre-orders every 5 seconds or pushing warranties down your throats. Yay!

Availability:
Digitally distributed games will always be ready to be distributed as long the media is hosted on a sever. No more worrying about having to search endless stores for the game you want!

Less clutter:
No more shelves full of games marking you as a dork, as games are neatly--and inconspicuously--stored onto your hard drive.

Cons:

Hard Drives:
The need for larger hard drives as games get progressively bigger can cost gamers quite a bit of money. Gamers tend to own quite a laundry list of games over a console's lifespan, so gamers may need to buy more or upgrade to bigger hard drives.

Deletion:
With media being stored as electronic data, what happens when something is accidently deleted or the system crashes? While most companies have fail-safes in place right now, what will happen when you lose your Xbox 360 Arcade titles 15 years from now?

Download Times:
With nearly every gamer trying to download big name titles and games as big as they are, servers can be bogged down increasing downloading times... remember the Halo 3 beta? Imagine if everyone tried to download the full version.

No Resale value:
You can't really resell electronic media, but if there's an eBay, there will soon be a way.

There's no doubt that digital distribution programs such as iTunes and direct2drive are pretty popular right now as more media goes digital. Is it a good idea with video games? Many programs like Valve's Steam program have been successful already.

I don't mind a digital delivery system to distribute games, but I always liked having a hard copies of my music, movies, and games. There are both good reasons and bad reasons on a digital delivery system, but with the popularity of portable devices and larger hard drives, it looks to be the future of how to distribute media. It works well now with music and other small media, but video games take a good chunk of data. There have already been notable failures in the digital download arena like the infamous Phantom. Let's hope Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and the Virtual Console do better as they are all on a nice start in delivering media to gamers.

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