So there's a bunch of talk about Apple making a portable game system similar to the iPhone. It doesn't sound too far fetched to me but I don't know if they'll go whole-hog. They might be more likely to release a new version of the iPod that's a little more geared toward gaming with an actual button layout or something. That'd be weird, Apple in the handheld market and Microsoft in the console market. It's almost like they'd be competing again...

But that brings me to what I really wanna talk about... Downloads. If Apple does make a portable game system it's likely that it'll just download games from iTunes without taking any physical media. Sony did this with the PSP Go and I have a feeling the PSP2 will go this route as well. From what I've heard it's a lot more profitable for companies to sell games via download and the format is proving more and more popular. Even if the PSP2 does take a physical medium I have a feeling that next gen we're going to see much greater emphasis on digital distribution. I think this is going to extend to consoles as well and we're going to see more high profile titles going download exclusive.

Opine!