I think Early Access would be OK if some of the money you paid was held in escrow and only released when the game is has all the features updated as it was initially described.

Other than that, I can't see why it's good for anyone besides the publisher/developer.

Probably because the developers were given more a a free reign back then to take risks. Now, they run everything through a committee and new ideas take longer to emerge.

It would never shut down, but it might change ownership.

@TheEroica: An infinite number of games you'd rather play?

@zintura: sorry?

After playing Surgeon Simulator, I elected to have unnecessary surgery on my appendix.

Distributing them on a mass scale is where you run into problems.

Whatever you're playing now (Witcher 3 etc.) will look terrible to a gamer in 4 years - so how are you able to enjoy it knowing that?

Physical's better value because you are receiving a tangible product. You can also re-sell it in some circumstance. If digital was say, 15% cheaper, I'd go for that more often.

I wish I did this more - just load games up to revisit the world and flavor and hear the music. You think you can remember a game, but then you load it up and all the little details can seem new again after a while.