It only makes sense that as games get larger and more dynamic that console developers would want to take advantage of having on-board storage. The Xbox set a precedent by making a hard drive a standard component at a time when such a device was a questionable extravagance. In those days, there was a lot of talk about what all that extra storage space could allow for but not a whole lot of implementation outside of storing music, game saves, and downloadable game content. In the current generation of gaming hardware — although the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are available without hard drives — I can hardly imagine not having one. Between the various types of media available from the major gaming networks, a hard drive should be standard and I seriously doubt that the next-generation will make such a glaring oversight. That’s why it comes as such a shock that Nintendo of America PR Manager, Eric Walter, recently commented in a Q&A session with Gamasutra that they [Nintendo] “really don’t want people storing every single game they buy on their drive” as support for the reason Nintendo won’t be making external storage devices. His argument is that a game purchase is forever — you can delete and re-download games at your leisure. In fact, you’d have to, given the Wii’s tiny amount of storage space.

For those of us who live a digital lifestyle, we don’t like deleting things. We like knowing that we have every last email backed up and safely tucked away somewhere. Freeing up space can quickly becoming a heartbreaking decision over what goes and what stays. We don’t like making that choice; we’ll gladly pay for more storage than to break down and finally clear out the recycling bin. No matter how trivial, we relentlessly hoard everything that comes within our clutches. While that may say something about us that we might not like to hear, is there any reason to do otherwise? There’s a lot to be said about being well-organized, but that’s beyond the scope this article. I’m here to complain about the Wii.

The Wii’s 512MBs of on-board storage is a paltry sum and I’ve heard from a number of people who have long since used all of it for games they’ve purchased for the Virtual Console. Because you can’t play games that are stored on an SD-card, you have to go through a tedious and time-consuming process of shuffling games and saves between the SD-card and system memory. Adding to the headache is the fact that Nintendo is adding more games and applications to be downloaded every couple of weeks — for example, the upcoming WiiWare title, “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Small King and the Promised Land”. Not being able to back these games up and play them from external storage is a real shame and one of the Wii’s many shortcomings which Nintendo outright refuses to acknowledge or do anything about, especially with more and more games being distributed digitally.

Digital distribution is nothing new, but it is the future. I doubt that physical media will go away anytime soon, but as companies like Valve can attest, people have certainly grown on the idea of paying to download a game — even a game as large as “The Orange Box”, which was actually 5 games in one. Unfortunately, not everyone seems to like the idea. Most notably, the GameStops of the world.

Cutting out the middleman — in this case, GameStop — is just the icing on the cake of digital distribution from the gamers’ perspective. If it means never having to hear the words, “You should have pre-ordered” again in my lifetime, I’ll take it. It can make games cheaper, as there’s no box art to be produced, no stocking fees, and no packaging materials to be produced and manufactured. You don’t even have to pay shipping! But the reason traditional retailers hate the idea of digital distribution is the fact that it kills the market for used games. GameStop can’t buy a game you downloaded. They can’t mark it up to almost full-price and resell it, either. Of course, this very same reason is why game publishers love digital distribution. You buy the game directly from them and have no choice but to keep it forever. You can’t sell, trade, or give it to anyone else unless that person goes and buys it again — direct from the publisher at full price. It’s an industry shaking idea that has paid off in spades for hundreds of independent game companies that have been using it to distribute their relatively unknown games for years. In fact, it might even provide a loophole for certain companies that have found their games banned and/or refused classification in other regions.

According to The Register Hardware, Take-Two interactive might be able to sell “Manhunt 2″, which was outright banned in the U.K. and refused classification by the British Board of Film Classification, as a download. While the game has been edited in order to go from an ESRB rating of “Adults Only” to “Mature”, by being refused classification by the BBFC, it still can’t be sold in the U.K.. Making it a download would allow it to skirt this law, although it remains doubtful that Take-Two Interactive would pursue this course of action. Also, it would be technically infeasible given the game’s target systems — the Wii and PlayStation 2. The PlayStation 2 did eventually get a hard disk drive along with a network adapter, but there remains no answer as to how one would actually purchase and get the game onto the drive. Meanwhile, the Wii simply would not have enough storage space to store the whole game. While it would be nice, I just don’t see it happening. Of course, all this comes aside from the fact that I don’t know anyone who even cares enough to want to play “Manhunt 2″ anymore… edited or not.

I really do believe that the next-generation of gaming consoles will absolutely support hard disk drives as a standard component across all major platforms. Just as developers learned the importance of adding online components to their games from the shortcomings of previous generations, so too will they learn the importance of external storage for the next generation to come. The idea of excluding a hard drive on one model so as to artificially increase the price of the models that don’t must end. It really serves no purpose other than to limit what developers can do with their games while confusing consumers about which model they really need to buy. As a self-confessed digital pack rat, if there’s one feature I’m looking forward to in the next generation, this is it.