I think it's ironic Ray Kurzweil predicted 2009 as the end of rotating disc media. Hard drives and CDs are hardly obsolete, but the top story about XBox Live eventually generating, perhaps, a billion dollars shows the end is near.

In hindsight, Nintendo should have gone with the cheaper, larger CD-ROM, but Nintendo and Sony are two very large corporations with very different business philosophies and ambitions. Also, Nintendo was afraid of piracy issues (somewhat justifiably) with the original Nintendo Playstation.

I wouldn't say Nintendo was ahead of it's time with solid state media, but the future of the industry seems to be solid-state flash memory with broadband Internet. Hard drives will slowly, eventually become the next tape drive as flash increases in capacity while lowering in price. Games will become cheaper and faster to distribute. Virtually organizing games on screen is easier (Although, I see the appeal of having a physical object).

The problem with online games today, though, is they are simpler and smaller in order to be downloaded quickly over today's Internet. I'd much rather explore a lush and long disc-based game rather than a quick flash game to satisfy any ADD-like tendencies.