How close are we to an all-digital gaming future? According to Sony's Kaz Hirai, a long way off. "To think everything will be downloaded in two years, three years or even ten years from now is taking it a little bit to the extreme," he told MCV.

"We do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn’t as robust as one would hope," he said. "There's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium."

While some gamers like digital distribution more than others, it's coming. Publishers like it for the lack of resellable product, consumers enjoy the convenience, and GameStop is terrified of it. While Hirai is right in that many markets simply don't have the infrastructure to support digital-only products, that won't keep Sony or Microsoft from moving aggressively into the digital space in the coming years by offering more games for download as well as a physical product.

Disc drives in the next generation of consoles? Count on it. But we can also be sure to see a strong push into the digital space at the same time. Sony was also the first company to attempt an all-digital console with the PSP Go, which seems to have already died an ugly death.