As of late, the games industry has somehow found itself in a rut of numerous minor upgrades having the price tag of full retail games. In terms of consoles, the PSP Go and DSi are the worst offenders. As for software, the recently released Halo 3: ODST is the first that comes to mind. So now that we’ve called out the most obvious perpetrators of this heinous crime in game marketing, what does it even mean to recognize what’s going on?

Well on the one hand, it might mean that our hardware and forms of physical content are starting to fall behind in the constant, high-speed race that is the digital age. These days sports games are updated daily, multiplayer games are patched weekly, and adventure games have new episodes every few months or so. For those of us without an internet connection (all three of you), the only way to keep up is to wait for Game of the Year or Premium editions of games, which normally come out a year after the initial game’s release with all of the downloadable content available on a disc.

Considering that, and the fact that most Game of the Year and Premium editions cost full retail price, it’s hard to say that ODST oversteps its bounds by being priced so high. The backbreaking factor which sets this package apart from others is that ODST’s campaign isn’t downloadable, and it doesn’t feature the original Halo 3 campaign. To better help you understand this I’ll use another game in contrast.

When the Fallout 3 Game of the Year edition hits stores this holiday season, it will include the original game along with all of its downloadable content and updates. That means the Broken Steel expansion (which spans about five hours), Operation Anchorage (two or three), The Pitt (about four), Lookout Point (up to eight), and Mothership Zeta (three or four) will all come packaged with the game. Conversely, if you bought the original game within a few months of its launch, and all of these expansions, you’ve spent nearly twice as much as you would on the Game of the Year edition. Now compare that to Halo 3: ODST, which only includes a four-to-six hour campaign, a Firefight mode with no matchmaking, and the same multiplayer and maps from the original Halo 3.

It doesn’t balance out, does it?

Similarly, the PSP Go and DSi are examples of hardware trying to update at the rate of digital information. While the Nintendo DS Lite only allowed players to play Game Boy Advanced and Nintendo DS games, the DSi will let players listen to music, view pictures and take pictures, and download games to their handheld via its online capabilities. Strangely, the upgrade calls for the loss of the ability to play Game Boy Advanced games, which probably won’t be a hugely missed feature. It’s still hard to shake the feeling that a simple firmware update might’ve saved customers the hassle of going out and buying an entirely new handheld, though. Oh well.

As for Sony’s new device, there’s really not much to say about it. It’s the same old PSP were it smaller, had a slide-up screen, and couldn’t play UMD games. Though it really caters to those who need portability above all else, there’s no way for current owners of the PSP to upgrade to the PSP Go without losing all of their UMD games in the process. So now there’s just one big question: who is Sony trying to sell this failure of a console to? One can only take a quick stab in the dark at the possible answers.

All of this in mind, recognizing that hardware is struggling to keep up with software now may help us to predict their relationship in the future, and what may unfold along the path. Most experts predict a huge shift in the paradigm that will be marked by the industry’s decision to abandon physical content altogether in favor of digital data not too far from now. For those who might like to speed that process along, or to prevent it from ever happening, understanding the evolution of gaming and information may be the first big step. Until we know for sure what will happen in the next generation of home consoles, we’ll have to keep a critical eye on games like Left 4 Dead 2, which has already been boycotted because of the belief that it should be downloadable-only.