The earliest version of a decent digital distribution model I ever encountered was Valve's Steam client, and at first, I didn't like it. However, since they've gotten a lot of the bugs straightened out, I've found that it's really sweet. Personally, I agree that the future will be in digital distribution, as the price of personal storage and high-speed internet continues to plummet for the end-user. Valve and Microsoft have seen great success with their Steam and XBLA services, and I think it's the kind of thing that'll just continue to grow - hopefully, though, through only a handful of distribution channels, as it'd get pretty annoying to see a lot of me-too networks pop up (hi EA).