This is how Quake Live works too - after a small download you enter a 10 minute warmup/skill-determining match against a bot, the rest of the maps carry on downloading while you play. In my case everything had finished downloading by the time I got out of the warmup.
Clever idea - these guys must have great PR behind them to plant a story like this.
Part of me really wants digital distribution of games, especially if it means cheaper titles. On the other hand, I'll miss being able to sell games to save money on new ones.
Neat idea - Valve have the content market well wrapped up at the moment so something genuinely new like this might have a chance of succeeding.
Steam has been already doing this for a while, even if most games aren't sliced apart the the quickest start-to-play time.
> Valve have the content market well wrapped up at the moment
Not really - according to Valve's own numbers, most Steam accounts are used solely for CounterStrike (and the required HL2 installation).