One area that the old brick-and-mortar games retailer still has over your favourite digital retailer is firing up the game on launch day. Sometimes, picking up a game at a midnight launch gets you gaming faster than having to download the game from the various stores you buy from.

Sony is planning to change that on their PlayStation Store this fall. Starting with the launch of Destiny in September, Sony says that all games pre-ordered on the Store will be available for pre-loading prior to the game’s launch so you can play right when the game’s release.

This piece of news was quietly released by Sony on pre-order confirmation notices for Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. While Ubisoft prohibited pre-loading for Watch Dogs (even though the PS4 was the featured and promoted version of the game), Sony included a notice that pre-loading for PS Store pre-orders would be the norm when Destiny (another multiplatform game that’s made the PS4 its apparent lead platform) launches in early September.

Here’s the notice given to people who have pre-ordered Watch Dogs.

So that’s one more advantage that the brick-and-mortars have that’s gone away. They still have pre-order bonuses, customer loyalty programs, not eating your microscopic bandwidth cap, not being throttled by your terrible ISP (hi, Shaw Cable) and an equal footing on price but how long does that last? I like that digital is becoming a better way to buy games. It’ll force the brick-and-mortars to compete and, as I often say, competition is good for the customer.

Source: Engadget