For those of us with kids or those who grew up with and love PC or Console Gaming (I’m in both categories), it looks like the recession is going to change how we deal with our obsession for gaming.

Slashdot reports that in a survey doing the rounds at the moment, Sony are trying to get people’s views on whether they would be willing to pay for online downloading and rental of games rather than outright purchase for their newest PSP handheld system with online capabilities.

The surveys asks questions regarding different models of working such an arrangement, costing plans, what people would like to see available etc.

Current anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been an upsurge again in DVD rental in the traditional “video” shops, with people cutting back on going out and also cutting back on DVD purchases as things tighten up. Over the last few years we had seen a massive drop in the number of rental outlets throughout the country with more and more rental outles forced to close their doors. With the cost of online purchases in particular forcing prices down and even the large supermarket chains supplying videos for sale off the shelf, coupled with the fact that we had more spending money available to us, we moved from renting to purchasing DVD’s. At the same time,  and new to this country, we saw the arrival of larger expanded outlets devoted solely to the sale of Music, DVD’s and video games (Virgin, Zavvi). Now it appears that this trend is reversing. Retail outlets are cutting back drastically on the number of stores they are keeping open, and as people download more electronically, the digital sales landscape is in flux.

The closest we had to any game rental scheme up to now was the availability of console games for hire in the local video rental outlet. This of course was easy enough to achieve with consoles systems.  You had a physical disc to rent.  Much, much harder, if not impossible to deal with, is PC gaming rental with online elements requiring single activation codes and their associated problems. Over the last couple of years however, the gaming scene has also been turned on its head by the massive gain in popularity of online PC games with a monthly payment(World for games they enjoy playing regularly and the main players in the market are looking to get their hands on some of your money this way.  Sales of games, like all luxury items, are hit particularly hard at the moment.To keep system development and new game creation alive the big companies have to look at alternative ways of getting in funds.

Into the future it appears that renting by downloading music, games and movies will be the main method of getting our fix. When the big Players (Sony Warner et al) finally get to grips with a workable way of handling this, one which will combine both the rights of the copyright owners (without it, nothing would ever be created) with the rights of the purchaser to freely decide how, when, where and on what they can watch their movie, play their music and play their games, without the current ridiculous DRM models, the current copyright spats will be put to bed. Following this online downloads should become far, far cheaper and easier to work while piracy would become virtually unnecessary and unworkable. It costs little or nothing to create and store a download when compared with having to print manuals, produce a disc, market and distribute it etc.

In this country the only major stumbling block to this is of course the condition of our broadband rollout, but that’s a matter for another post.

Do you think this is the way to move into the future? Would you prefer to get a physical plastic circle into your hands, even if it costs more?

Start thinking about it.  This is where we’re heading folks.