Dell announced a deal with Paramount to sell new PCs with the summer blockbuster Iron Man pre-installed (but only in standard definition, ha ha!). This clearly signals Dell's intent to get a piece of the content action, which has long been migrating to the living room. How long will it be before Dell starts muscling in on the mindshare of Valve's Steam, Stardock's Impulse, Paradox's Gamer's Gate, Turner's GameTap, etc., etc. Digital distribution is a major part of PC gaming these days. Dell knows that, right? I give them a year before they work out some deal to pre-load World of Warcraft or The Sims 3.

Oh, and since I'm sure all of you who gave Spore one-star on Amazon.com for its DRM are wondering:

Full details concerning digital rights management were not available, but Dell will allow users to burn one copy of "Iron Man" to DVD.