With the advent of the new console generation, the news has been ablaze with any little tidbit they can get their hands on. I've always been a bit interested in the tech, but every console only ever merits real attention when it has an impressive library that gives the system its worth. Every gamer has a threshold for the sweet spots of when a console lives up to expectations, and certainly sometimes it can be a single game. How many PSXs were sold based on FF7 alone, I wonder?

Something that is becoming increasingly common is the push to go almost exclusively digitally for game purchases. I actually enjoy owning physical media and looking around to what is being offered in the physical space, it becomes abundantly clear why gamers are trending digitally and I don't believe it's all out of convenience.

Between terrible liner notes, non-existent or pathetically built instruction books and no catchy pack-ins such as maps and posters, is it any wonder? The state of physical presentation for games has pretty much been decimated by cost-cutting measures and there is no sense of wonder and awe upon opening up the little gift that a physical game should be. The special items are usually reserved only for collector's editions, of which not all games get the treatment for. Of course, there are still awesome companies like Atlus, XSeed and NIS who pack in lots of TLC into their standard or first-run prints, but they are the exception.

What I would personally love to see is a reduction of price in digital games and the elimination of regular physical media. Make all physical copies a little bit of a collector's edition, for a slightly higher price. So perhaps a new 3DS game for $35 digitally and $50 or so for a nicely presented physical box package. Make some post cards or plastic cards activated at the cash register for people to buy the digital version in stores so players have a choice. Perhaps even offer a digital deluxe version of the game with wallpapers, avatars, digital art/concept books would be nice.

Either way, I hope we see physical boxes preserved, just in a smart and enticing way; the act of collecting precious media will persist.