Another contender for 'iTunes of games'
Regarding iTunesy game download services, you have to mention Steam. For awhile, it was purely a Half-Life 2 sort of thing, but its game lineup has expanded greatly in the last year (it's still a bit slim, but it's getting there). One cool feature is that when you create an account, it keeps track of all games that you've purchased that utilize Steam, so if you wipe your system for some reason, it's easy to re-download and install all your games. This is especially nice if you, like me, have had all of your install discs buried in some box in the top of a closet since you moved last May. The downside is that many of the games require Internet access for verification, even if you're playing a single-player, offline game. I'm not a pirate (at least not the bad kind, yarr) and always have Internet access available, so it's not a problem. Pirates and notebook gamers may have more issues, though. I'm sure others have written about this, but I hope my e-mail is the coolest. You guys are the awesome.

James the lacking-of-a-profession-that-qualifies-him-as-a-useful-citizen-of-Buzztown guy

Rumble is so last generation
Rumble is a last-generation feature, so says Sony President Phil Harrison.

Speaking in an interview with GameDaily Biz, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison has commented that the rumble feature, which was taken out of the Sixaxis PlayStation 3 controller was a "last-generation feature."

According to Harrison, Sony has "no plans" to offer rumble in the standard Sixaxis controller. Harrison also commented that he thought rumble wasn't a next-generation feature, but he thinks "motion sensitivity is." He continued, "We don't see the need to do that. Having said that, there will be specific game function controllers, potentially like steering wheels, that do include vibration or feedback function--not from us but from third parties.

Mike T.

Some caution on one-time use credit card numbers
I was following your discussion about "one-time use credit cards" (e.g. ShopSafe) and wanted to offer some words of caution to the rest of Buzztown concerning their use. I have used ShopSafe for several years and have found it works really well for online purchases, except in situations where later you may unexpectedly be required to hand the physical card over to someone. For example, a couple of years ago I used a ShopSafe-generated credit card number to order movie tickets from Fandango. It was my first time using Fandango, and I was not aware I would need to physically present the card I used in making the purchase to the worker at the box office before I could obtain my tickets. Long story short, I was still able to get the tickets, but only after a lot of hassle. I've also encountered some problems when returning online purchases to brick-and-mortar stores if I happened to use a ShopSafe number for the purchase and it's the policy of that company to only issue refunds to the credit card used for the purchase. Anyway, just some things to keep in mind if you're going to use ShopSafe or a similar service. [Insert obligatory but heartfelt love the podcast and keep up the good work statements...and love to Molly's Cylon progeny.]

Matt the Hokie grad student from Virginia