The BBC is reporting that a computer and video game website, Awomo, has discovered a means of allowing people to jump right in and start playing their digital download games before the download is finished. Think of it as the iTunes of the video game world.

Essentially the core files have been separated and are downloaded first which allows you to fire up the game while the remaining files sip coffee and continue downloading in the background.

This is great news for those of us who hate waiting for anything at all, ever. I would've thought us American's would be the first to take the need for instant gratification in game buying to the next level, but I guess those crazy Brits are every bit as impatient when it comes to their Tomb Raider.

Though I'm not a big fan of digital downloading, Awomo site manager, John Houlihan has assured the BBC, "that will also change over time."

He adds that the nostalgia of physically buying and owning a game is still very prevalent in the minds of many gamers, but that the future of gaming ultimately lies in digital downloading. This is good news to my media shelves, but bad news to my compulsive collecting disorder. How can I feel like I own something if it only exists in my computer? I get shaky just thinking about it.

In the meantime don't get your hopes up too high for super-fast downloads of your entire gaming wishlist as the developers have explained that not all games can be broken up this way and the process to decide if they are possible candidates can be a bit lengthy.

I have to admit, my first thought when reading the article was that if I started downloading and playing a game that was crap I would be able to quit the download before it had fully asserted itself on my hard drive. I can't count the amount of time I've wasted downloading or installing games and all their updates only to have to turn around and promptly remove them due to suckage.



Of course there was no mention in the article if you'd be able to return the unused portion of your digital download for a partial refund at digital gamestop, but I guess that technology is still a few years down the line.