I think having a downloadable version of SoW will be very much on the mind of Oleg and 1C. If the discussion over at the zoo is anything to go by, it seems that Ubisoft may not be publishing SoW. If 1C do go with a download version, then it cuts out the large publisher, which should mean more of our money ends up with the developer, which is a good thing. It's may also easier and more economical for smaller publishers to have a downloadable version, instead of a cd/box run.
It can also depend on how the downloadable version is distributed. Is it a direct download from the game developer, or through a 3rd party like gamersgate or direct2drive? There is also the steam platform, which has a very wide audience (although most not interested in flight sims). IL2: 1946 is currently available via steam and I for one would be very interested to see how well it's sold. It will be interesting to see which way Neoqb go with Rise of Flight.
As for digital right management, I realise it's a pain in the neck, but it's here to stay and in the long run is good for the pc gaming community. I think piracy is one of the biggest reasons a lot of developers are moving from pc to consoles. Getting off topic here...
Slipball, there will be a boxed version of Black Shark in the near future, around the time of the first patch I think (tentatively March). With the activations, if you uninstall the sim, you gain that activation back (i.e. you only lose an activation if you have an untidy uninstall...HDD crashes etc.) and you can contact DCS for additional activations if you run out. There are a lot of people sharing your position though and are waiting on a boxed version.
SoW looks to be at least a year or more away, so Oleg has plenty of time to keep an eye on other releases in the flight sim market and work out which way they want to go.
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