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This paper explores the potential effects of digital games on the early latency phase, a period marked by foundational cognitive, social, and self-regulatory developments as well as by a unique set of vulnerabilities. Although research in this area is relatively scarce, recent studies suggest that rising numbers of five- to eight-year-olds engage in the use of digital devices and that Internet games are increasingly targeted to younger audiences. Some theorists caution about the impact of violent imagery and unrealistic media-based depictions of people and relationships, whereas others propose that digital technologies offer new opportunities for autonomy, personal expression, and community with online peers. The following questions arise: as the boundary between real and virtual play grows porous, do digital games fall within the realm of make-believe play and serve the developmental functions of solitary and shared pretense? Might the highly stimulating, fast-paced, and immediately gratifying nature of digital devices interfere with emerging self-regulatory capacities? How does the young child experience virtual friendships? Psychoanalytic theory offers a unique vantage point for examining these contemporary issues by illuminating the developmental capacities, challenges, and vulnerabilities of early latency that interface with cultural experiences; these include the child’s increasing sense of separateness and autonomy, the presence of enhanced cognitive abilities but shaky superego capacities, and a deepening investment in the world beyond the family. References to the treatment of a six-year-old girl are used to illustrate the potential meanings of digital play.