Digital. Everything’s going digital. In fact if you’re in America right now it’s the only way you can watch TV, as the analogue signal was recently switched off. The last few years has seen digitally distributed music explode and become the market leader way ahead of the CD.

But what about games? Recent years have seen platforms such as PSN (PlayStation Network) and Xbox Live Marketplace distributing small and diverse games such as Geometry Wars, Braid, Flower, and Rag Doll Kung Fu. There have even been full-sized games such as Warhawk and Burnout Paradise, or extra chapters as in GTA4: The Lost and Damned.

So what does this mean? Will game discs start to fade out like CD’s? Only a fool would say so (or somebody very confident of not accidentally deleting their collection after a night on the town). However, Sony’s recent announcement (that we all knew about anyway) about the new PSP Go, is relying solely on digitally savvy gamers.

The new PSP will not have a UMD drive; instead games will solely be available through digital distribution. This can be via the PSN on PS3, or on a home computer, and possibly straight to the PSP with a wireless connection at home connecting straight to the PSN Store.

This is clearly aimed at a market that feels comfortable downloading music, films and TV episodes. A major concern must be how long before illegal copies are available to download online? Sony have already admitted that they scrapped PSP Trophies because of the systems vulnerability to hackers and modders (who’ve been happily playing their own version of PSP Final Fantasy VII for years).

Sony isn’t totally abandoning the old UMD format though, as they claim they will continue to support both systems. Anyone trading in their old system though will be left with the dilemma of not being able to play their UMD discs, with no guarantee they will become available for download, and would they want to bother buying it again? Perhaps this is a chance for Sony show a bit of goodwill by offering the download for free / at discount when old UMDs are traded in. Wishful thinking.

While more and more people are getting used to shopping online, others remain wary. It’s just not that accessible for some shoppers. So kiddo, before you ask for a PSP Go for Christmas, you better think about whether you want to explain to all your relatives how to buy these digital copies online. A sensible Christmas option would be to have something like selling codes in shops for the recipient to use to unlock the game themselves.

There’s also the problem of Sony’s strange prices for downloadable PSP games now which frequently sees prices around £17.99 for an old crap game that’s £5 pre-owned.

PC gamers are way out in front though with bragging rights to the amount of content available to them via services like Valve’s Steam or the host of free games by Aeria Games.

Steam is like iTunes for games where you can pay to legally download titles. Or companies like Aeria want to shower you with free games, with no strings attached and all perfectly legal. Aeria games are a great place to start to test out the MMORPG genre with lots of free titles, such as Luminary and Twelve Sky 2. This is perfect if the idea of paying a monthly subscription whether you play all hours or occasionally sounds ridiculous (it really is by the way). They also have puzzle and racing titles available.

Pretty soon, here at Game Hub we’ll be looking into Aeria’s early steps into the First Person Shooter genre with Wolf Team, which looks set to have the unique selling point of having the option to play as humans or Werewolves. Which might just satisfy the bloodlust that might build up after a lengthy session on a MMORPG or puzzle game.