Well, the internet has come a long way since the days of hiding a phone extension under the carpet from the living room, through the hall, up the stairs, along the landing to a quiet corner of the spare bedroom and attached to a super fast dial-up modem! :)
Now, its accessible anywhere in the home, from the study, to the garden and even in the john.
The thing is, PC's have nigh-on always had that sorta connectivity, and as such, distribution of software has slowly and surely geared itself to that, more so as the network speeded up.
So I'd say the apparent trend is based on this.
Now though, consoles makers have spotted the potential of the internet, not only through online gameplay, but online services and products (Wii's Shopping Channel being one of them)... Just look at the current genre of consoles and nigh-on all of them allow the console to connect to the internet.
This trend will continue obviously, and as such, in a few generations time we'll probably see less and less hard-copies version of games, up to a point that the old ROM drive will be as useful as a floppy drive!
Dabz
Now, its accessible anywhere in the home, from the study, to the garden and even in the john.
The thing is, PC's have nigh-on always had that sorta connectivity, and as such, distribution of software has slowly and surely geared itself to that, more so as the network speeded up.
So I'd say the apparent trend is based on this.
Now though, consoles makers have spotted the potential of the internet, not only through online gameplay, but online services and products (Wii's Shopping Channel being one of them)... Just look at the current genre of consoles and nigh-on all of them allow the console to connect to the internet.
This trend will continue obviously, and as such, in a few generations time we'll probably see less and less hard-copies version of games, up to a point that the old ROM drive will be as useful as a floppy drive!
Dabz