It is kind of maddening, considering that consoles now know all of this metadata about your usage. Digital purchases should have a number of improvements over a

It is kind of maddening, considering that consoles now know all of this metadata about your usage. Digital purchases should have a number of improvements over a physical purchase, but that hasn't really happened and perhaps it never will. It doesn't seem that unreasonable to expect: - Reduced cost, since there is one fewer middleman, no breakage or unsold inventory and no shipping (although it must be said that the costs to serve game downloads is not really that much cheaper than storefronts) - Trial periods or return windows, as hvidgaard mentioned - Resale and gifting These all seem like missed opportunities to me. Developers bemoan the used game market, because it means that a game which 10 million people played only pays them for 2 million copies. Oh, and they have to provide support and services to all 10 million people or reap the whirlwind. Rather than try to get sales to 10 million units (which will never happen for various reasons), how about 4 million? I guess there will always be someone saying "well, if we just didn't allow digital sales to have return windows..."