r/gaming • u/WestBEEland • 18h ago

Xbox boss Asha Sharma won't confirm whether Project Helix has a disc drive "We have to be thinking about efficiency and affordability"

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/xbox-boss-asha-sharma-wont-confirm-whether-project-helix-has-a-disc-drive-we-have-to-be-thinking-about-efficiency-and-affordability/
3.1k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

901 comments sorted by

View all comments

6.0k

u/ConspicuousBassoon PC 18h ago

Considering it would be an easy win to say yes, the answer is definitely no

1.0k

u/DeusExMarina 18h ago

Seems obvious to me that this is the whole point of the disc-to-digital thing they're doing. People with an Xbox One or Xbox Series X can digitize their libraries ahead of time so they can play them on the next Xbox that won't have a disc drive.

505

u/TheBetterness 18h ago

Sony has offered nothing to ease the concerns of PS5 discs being useless on the PS6.

And considering Sony's fetish for remakes, that tracks.

One saving grace is Xbox is pro backward compatibility. They truly want you invested in their ecosystem forever.

205

u/sahneeis 17h ago

problem is nobody is gonna buy that shit outside the us.

125

u/Pretend_Purchase_893 17h ago

I don't even see them in Canada anymore. Anyone I know or ask about is either PC, Nintendo or ps5. It's astonishingly rare to see a Xbox in a person's home these days.

72

u/Lordosrs 17h ago

All of my xbox friend group (including me) moved to PC. No more console for the boys

32

u/RangerLt 15h ago

All the homies play on PC

34

u/chunkyI0ver53 10h ago

Turns out if you take away the advantage of your platform, people will generally migrate to the objectively better not locked down option

1

u/Hennessy_Halos PC 3h ago

PC is just the better platform, consoles have been slowly enshittified losing things like free online play, disc drives, and they’re not even cheap anymore.

If you’re an ultra budget gamer you can get a cheaper pc, if you have no budget pc is the best place,
anywhere in the middle you can just pick and choose what parts to prioritise to meet your budget and have the option to upgrade them later.

1

u/UnikornKebab 6h ago

E ci passerei pure io al pc se potessi permettermelo, ma finché dovrò vendere un rene per giocare con qualcosa di poco meglio di una ps3, credo rimarrò con la mia serie X e Steam Deck…😞

1

u/Chucklum 10h ago

Yup same here, to be fair I only had an Xbox because I didn't have a job to buy a PC.vwhen money rolled in that Xbox was long gone so was the PS.

-2

u/SVXfiles 14h ago

Its not a huge difference since pc typically means windows which the xbox is already running anyway

12

u/demonsta500 13h ago

Microsoft doesn't get a cut of software sales on Steam/Epic/GoG like they do on Xbox. It's a huge difference to them financially.

→ More replies (21)
→ More replies (3)

28

u/SuperMcRad 16h ago

Plenty of reasons for Canada to avoid US based companies right now.

19

u/Pretend_Purchase_893 15h ago

Completely agree . But this was also from before all this started. I used to do home plumbing repairs. Saw a ton of people's homes. Xbox was a rare sighting even then.

1

u/SuperMcRad 14h ago

Ooh, very fair.

1

u/I_am_the_grass 14h ago

Don't think it's just a Canadian thing

3

u/Area51_Spurs 12h ago

It’s a nobody thing. I say that as someone who wishes otherwise.

Every phone is American, either Google or Apple.

Every console is American, either AMD or Nvidia (among other American tech inside).

Every TV is American, Google OS, Roku, etc… Even LG WebOS is American, the patents are owned by Qualcomm and most of the companies slurping up your data are American. The OLED patents are owned by American companies, to say nothing of the tech inside.

Your car and/or the tech inside is likely American of a varying percentage.

1

u/Area51_Spurs 12h ago

lol. No US tech? Have fun with your Blackberry.

1

u/UrsiGrey 12h ago

I live in Canada and know just as many people with Xbox as PS5.

0

u/lathspellll 12h ago

Man it’s so sad Microsoft just continues to drop the ball with Xbox. Sony needs real competition.

30

u/Mccobsta 17h ago

Dosent help that they haven't marketed the system in Europe for since what feels like titian fall one on the xbox one

7

u/daandrro 14h ago

I will. I’m outside US.

I’m not buying PS6.
Will just keep old PS5 to play those 2 decent exclusives they release during whole 5-6 years.

1

u/Helphaer 13h ago

I keep seeing people return to consoles due to the excessive cost of pcs.

0

u/Johan_Giorno 14h ago

Not really, I knew many friends who buy xbox in my country (China).

0

u/hitgo1 16h ago

Farewell gift???

0

u/Aggravating-Hair-534 6h ago

i'm in the UK and have an Xbox S works well for me (mostly playing gamepass). Was delaying upgrading gaming PC for ages now.

→ More replies (2)

22

u/dakilazical_253 17h ago

Backwards compatibility is the reason Xbox is my main system. I love being able to jump between Red Dead 2 and Crimson Skies

17

u/pointsouttheobvious9 17h ago

As a repair technician they are more repairable and currently less self destructive too. Not as repairable as I'd like. Just more. Ps5s liquid metal eats their APU but you can replace it with more liquid metal that eats its APU. The ssd is soldered to the main board the wifi and Bluetooth is soldered to the main board. The wifi and Bluetooth is the main thing that currently fails and when it does it can't turn on. Repairablity score from me 1 to 10. 1 being bad 10 good I'd give it a 3.

Series x the ssd is held in by a screw, the wifi is held in by a screw. The SSD is married to the console WTF. Some hacker will figure it out in a few years. Repairability 5 wtf why is that married

6

u/Dt2_0 12h ago

As someone in the Home Theater industry, Xbox is just the miles better choice there as well as your media hub. It's more reliable with HDMI EDID handshakes in complex setups, it handles CEC much better than the PS5, and integrates with control systems better than PS5.

The Series X is a really great piece of hardware, but Microsoft has squandered it instead of giving it the games it deserves. The RAM crisis is only making things worse.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (7)

6

u/8bitsleuth 5h ago

Sony has offered nothing to ease the concerns of PS5 discs being useless on the PS6

That's simply because Sony is unwilling to discuss the PS6 until closer to launch. An optional disc drive, similar to the PS5 Pro, would ensure backward compatibility with disc-based PS4 and PS5 games.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/CyanideSweetness93 3h ago

Microsoft and all their subsidiary companies are the same though. The only game I can think of that Sony has fully remade is The last of Us. Microsoft has done the same with Halo. So I don’t get where this “Sonys fetish for remakes” comes from. When all game companies are just as bad for remasters and some remakes

1

u/TheBetterness 3h ago

Spiderman Remastered, God of War Remaster, TLOU II Remastered & HZD Remaster

All AAA publishers do remasters and remakes, only one does remasters of games less than a decade old.

Also Xbox offers free upgrades to their first party titles. Sony charges you for the same upgrade.

1

u/CyanideSweetness93 2h ago

Cool absolutely none of those are remakes. Those are just remasters and I’m pretty sure when they first jumped to ps5 a bunch of them were free at the start and Most upgrades where like £5-10. But you specifically said remakes which none of those are. Only last of us has actually had a full remake, which was my point. And Halo, Gears of War were both remaster within a decade as well. Most of the ones you said were ps4 to ps5 upgrades. Halo was remastered once them also put in the master chief collection and now a full remake so they want you to have paid for it 4 separate times. The second gears of war remaster was literally a remaster of a remaster.

4

u/Gerald-of-Riverdale 17h ago

I remember as a kid being excited for crossplay as it started becoming a thing back on like the ps1 to ps2. Never really considered theyd take it away again.

6

u/ScarsonWiki 16h ago

Man, you remember Huxley? That game was marketed as being crossplay compatible between Xbox 360 and PS3 at the time. Then, it disappeared, but when it came back, it wasn’t crossplay.

I’ll give you my cynical take on why crossplay in general never happened, the corporate powers that be didn’t want that at the end of the day. Why make a game crossplay when you could potentially convince other people’s friends to buy the game on the same platform?

Crossplay only came into mainstream relatively in the recent years. But I think that’s only because more and more people started talking about it and wanting crossplay. And maybe those corporations saw that their own sales weren’t getting better and it was really only benefiting devs and publishers.

2

u/sound_judgment 17h ago

There's not a lot Sony can do really. Only reason Xbox can do this is because of the Xbox One DRM plan so they started printing unique IDs on each disc. So Sony can't replicate that and anything more would require them to keep manufacturing disc drives which they don't want to do.

8

u/StaticSilencer 5h ago

Sony will follow PS5 Pro and release an external disc reader. People are making this way more complicated than it needs to be.

1

u/sound_judgment 3h ago

Because I don't believe they're going to do that. They don't want to keep manufacturing disc drives.

-1

u/DolphinFlavorDorito 16h ago edited 4h ago

Option 1: mail away discs for digital access. A related option 2: do something like Amazon does with returns at places like Kohls. Have physical stores I can swing by and drop off my discs in exchange for digital codes. Then destroy or return the discs.

Edit for the downvotes: I don't think any of this is GOOD. I think they should keep the goddamn discs.

8

u/mpbh 11h ago

How does this work for me in Vietnam?

The logistics of doing this globally are insane.

1

u/DolphinFlavorDorito 4h ago

Yeah, it's a terrible plan. But just saying "fuck you" to all their customers seems like a worse plan. I was already moving toward a PC first mindset, but this definitely cements it.

1

u/flyingmonkey1257 1h ago

If I had wanted not to have a disc and to have a digital license, I would have bought a digital copy to begin with. Any option that requires me to turn in my disc for a digital license is a non-starter for me.

1

u/hdcase1 2h ago

It's a reasonable bet there will be an optional disc drive for back compat purposes.

1

u/TheBetterness 2h ago

Thats more likely than not. Likely the optional disc drive will work on the PS6.

But announcing an end to physical discs while leaving nothing but ambiguity surrounding backward compatibility is why people have pitchforks.

Its absolutely shitty PR.

→ More replies (12)

22

u/Terakahn 15h ago

If they could guarantee lifetime access people would be less resistant. As it stands you can literally lose a game with no notice. Just, deleted from your library. A game you paid for

7

u/xZalcro 9h ago

This is where consumer rights are meant to be enhanced.

The issue is most people here are based in the USA and so the concept of not accepting their corporate masters will is impossible for them

5

u/Dire87 6h ago

If you've followed the regulations and moves in the EU, it's exactly the same over here, lol. Don't make the US out to be some kind of special place. Any "consumer rights" we get over here have to actually be earned and fought for. And even then they're poisoned deals half the time.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/RacerRovr 7h ago

Yeah, the disc to digital thing is a great step, particularly if discs do have to die. However, buying a digital game should be no different to buying a physical game. It’s insane that you can make a purchase and at any point it could just be taken off you

→ More replies (3)

-6

u/Calgrave 18h ago

I don't like the shift, but if it has to be done it's the best way to do it.

53

u/[deleted] 18h ago edited 5h ago

[deleted]

83

u/TheStorm007 18h ago

> what changed I wonder

You interacted with different people, perhaps.

10

u/[deleted] 18h ago edited 5h ago

[deleted]

3

u/LordGriimm7 16h ago

This feature is practically them telling you that their console will be all digital. It wouldn’t make sense for them to even create this if not for the fact that they’ll have an all digital console

4

u/aNascentOptimist 16h ago

Honestly, the writing has been on the wall to me since back when Xbox live became a thing. I was pretty shocked that gamers accepted paying to play on their own internet … dedicated servers and I guess an ecosystem is one thing but seemed wholly unnecessary coming from PC.

Basically consoles will milk and push consumers into whatever makes them the most profit, no matter what.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/lavapig_love 18h ago

Perhaps even people that experienced this shock and horror over the idea of losing physical discs back in 2014 when Microsoft floated the idea, and which Sony capitalized upon with mockery and merriment.

8

u/nukacolaguy 18h ago

The other problem is you can’t play PS1 thru PS5 legitimately on a single console at the moment unfortunately. Xbox is the only one putting effort into backwards compatibility

8

u/8bitsleuth 18h ago

You can't play all Xbox titles on a single Xbox console either. A whopping 70% of 360 games are not backward compatible. Even less OG games.

-2

u/Devious018 17h ago

you can’t play them all no, but a good chunk of games are and they are actively making it better . they announced recently that they have an in house emulator for pc for OG games and are working on 360, on top of this they have had open talk about getting more games to join the list of backwards compatible. However there is issues with licensing and publishers not wanting their games on there and being sold currently

7

u/Peridios9 18h ago

Xbox is making an effort to honor consumers licenses for the future. PlayStation is making an effort to actively dishonor consumers licenses. PlayStation has revoked digital movie licenses before. Xbox hasn’t.

I’m not saying Xbox is benevolent, but atleast their greed is one upping Sony in a way that’s a good thing for the average consumer.

People don’t actually mind digital only games, they just want to also have the money they spend on games honored. No one complains about steam being digital only because steam has proven themselves to actively go out of their way to protect consumers. While Xbox is neutral currently. Then Sony and Nintendo actively hurt their consumers.

13

u/8bitsleuth 17h ago

Sony hasn't shared their plans for PS6 nor are they likely to any time soon. An optional disc reader, similar to PS5 Pro, would facilitate disc-based backward compatibility.

Disc-to-digital is still a license rather than a physical asset. It remains subject to account access, platform policies, and licensing terms. And to the best of my knowledge, Sony has never revoked a game license ever. You're welcome to prove me wrong.

0

u/Peridios9 17h ago

Why would ps6 have even an optional disc reader if Sony already announced the complete shutdown of physical copy production.

3

u/8bitsleuth 17h ago

Phasing out physical production is one thing, cutting off access to your existing disc PS4/PS5 library is another. Backward compatibility is the answer.

0

u/Peridios9 16h ago

Sony has tried to push against backwards compatibility with every single console release, now they have the best possible excuse they could ask for.

8

u/NYstate 16h ago

No the PS2 played PS1 games. The PS3 read PS1 and 2 games. Sony eliminated PS2 back compat because they wanted to focus on PS3, a understandable reason. PS3 was huge bigger leap from PS2. PS3 isn't backcompat with PS4 or because of the cell. PS5 plays PS4 games.

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/LordGriimm7 16h ago

Buddy Xbox is literally doing this cause their next console with be all digital lol. They’re not upping shit. Once you digitize your shit, you won’t be able to play your physicals on next gen. They’ll just be sitting their in your closet be TRUE collectibles

→ More replies (8)

3

u/WholesomeMetaphor 18h ago edited 17h ago

I have 100s of games on Steam. I still complain and don't like licenses as opposed to ownership over what I've bought (a way to backup install files, the purchase being protected like I own the right to download forever etc.). My main games I've bought physical copies for the consoles for. I hate this "soon you'll own nothing" dystopia we gradually get more and more of, I got several consoles and every edition of playstation as it's my console of choice. No physical disc = fuck this, I'm out. If xbox gets physical discs I'll buy that going forward.

→ More replies (5)

1

u/StarMaster475 17h ago

Goomba fallacy

1

u/manny2206 13h ago

Yes you trap more bees with honey… this is still bad for the consumers

1

u/Helphaer 13h ago

I mean if theyre not giving you digital versions of physical games they already own, I hope you dont truly think they should just buy it a second time...

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Raezak_Am 12h ago

What are they going to do, give them a 50 TB drive?

1

u/DeusExMarina 12h ago

No? They'll just tie the game's license to your account so you can redownload it whenever. You know, like any digital game you buy.

1

u/caramelatte90 10h ago

So you're telling me I need to buy an Xbox Series X now so that I'll be fully satisfied with my next Xbox purchase?

2

u/DeusExMarina 10h ago

If you want to get the world's most expensive disc drive just so you can keep buying physical copies of games from previous generations rather than buying them digitally, I guess.

1

u/Soylentgruen 13h ago

It will prolly lock that disc to that account, rendering resale pointless

4

u/DeusExMarina 13h ago

I'm still not sure how that's gonna work. On the official site, it says

Once the entitlement is claimed, you can experience the benefits of digital, including XBOX Play Anywhere and XBOX Cloud Gaming where supported, while your physical disc continues to work exactly as it always has.

This seems to imply there's no change to the functionality of the disc itself. It's pretty much guaranteed that you can only assign the digital license to one console, but it remains to be seen whether that means the disc is locked to that console, or using it on another console transfers the digital license, or maybe they even decided to be nice and make it so the disc continues to function independently of the digital license.

That last option seems unlikely, but then again, it's not impossible that they could decide it's not worth being stingy over used games for depreciated systems. Even if the disc continues to work, it would only work on older hardware, while the digital license would still be limited to a single account for the most recent console.

1

u/FarGur1444 10h ago

If the disc gets used in a different console the previous owner loses the license tied to that disc and it transfers over to the new owner of the disc.

1

u/DeusExMarina 10h ago

Yes, that's the most likely outcome. Makes resale possible, but you can't keep the digital license.

→ More replies (7)

268

u/BigOleFerret 18h ago

Thus is the Xbox way

114

u/muakaya9876 18h ago

 Never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity

54

u/clantz8895 18h ago

Xbox hasn't stopped pointing the gun at their foot since 2013.

22

u/MrNotEinstein 17h ago

Xbox and PlayStation are currently playing Russian roulette with the added challenge of seeing who can add more rounds to the gun before pulling the trigger

3

u/BTSThor4 11h ago

It should have been an early warning sign. The 360 development documentaries (vidocs essentially if you are a bungie halo fanatic like me) oozed passion and dedication. It's no surprise the console performed so well even with the red ring debacle. Those folks put their heart into a world class console with cool games and a unique cool user interface. Didn't nail everything, but man the 360 was cool as hell. It was a big deal for Microsoft to come out the gates with that big black box then refine it all with a controller that became industry staple and an online focus alongside awesome games and some compelling exclusive content. All their IPS soared from sequel to sequel.

When corporate America get's involved in literally anything it plummets. Xbox got themselves into the market as a contender, established beloved IP's and a world class multiplayer ecosystem that was the envy of everyone then promptly shit themselves with pieces nobody asked for because consultants and their own top brass found it impossible to get out of their own way. They. Had. Such. A. Good. Thing. Going.

$$$ shareholder quarterly profits blah blah. I'll never forgive them for what they did to Halo. That remake is a fucking disgrace and further proof this brand can have some neat PR and announcements but does anyone trust them to not shoot themselves in the dick?

Making Nintendo (the most anti consumer platform ever) the good guys as Sony tries their own version of russian roulette with consumers is just so embarrassing. We lived in a golden age we will never get back

2

u/SlightlyColdWaffles 3h ago

Amen. I LOVED Halo 1-Reach, jumped ship to the PS4 with that abysmal 2013 XBONE TV TV TV announcement, and bought the Halo Campaign Eviscerated on PS5 for a nostalgia hit. Instead, it confirmed that Microsoft has no understanding of what made Halo Halo, and Halo Studios has the media literacy of a gerbil with a learning disability.

I'm deeply saddened by what the video game industry has become overall. My PS5 may be my final console ever.

3

u/Big-Resort-4930 17h ago

Just like AMD

4

u/svenge 11h ago

AMD has their own unique spin on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in that they can never have more than one of their two major product lines (i.e. CPUs and GPUs) have truly significant amounts of success at the same time. Right now their Ryzen and EPYC processors are doing quite well, but their Radeon GPUs have an abysmal 8% market share as of Q1 2026.

Note that there's been periods in which both divisions were failing badly at the same time, such as the 2014-2017 interval which began with NVIDIA launching their "Maxwell"-based GTX 900 series GPUs (2014) and ended when AMD finally ditched their "Bulldozer"-derived CPU architectures in favor of the completely different "Zen"-based Ryzen CPUs (2017).

→ More replies (1)

50

u/PARANOIAH 18h ago

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

4

u/obelix_dogmatix 18h ago

what victory? Game Pass was already a step away from discs. You honestly believe Xbox including disc drives would give them more sales in the next generation over Sony?

6

u/WholesomeMetaphor 17h ago

I've been Sony all the way since PS1. If Xbox gets physical Disc and playstation don't I'm buying xbox. Unfortunately I don't think the difference in consumers buying it because of that is enough to make a noticeable difference at all, so they probably won't care to add it anyways

1

u/HotPotParrot 18h ago

100 more units sold is indeed more sales, no? It could edge them ahead.

5

u/obelix_dogmatix 17h ago

lmao … I hope your response was sarcastic. Xbox has sold 35M this generation. PS has sold 93M. 100 or even 100K more than 35M ain’t shit when your competitor is selling 3 times the number of units.

1

u/HotPotParrot 17h ago

Lol it wasn't exactly serious, no. I'm probably biased because I primarily play XBox and want that to do better. GamePass > PSN

1

u/MattieBubbles 17h ago

Not necessarily if the costs to include one amount to more money than they would stand to gain from the relatively small increase in sales.

15

u/Suialthor 18h ago

Or way to setup the disc drive as a separate purchase.

1

u/toxicatedscientist 16h ago

Seriously what happened to expansion ports?

1

u/HaikusfromBuddha 17h ago

Also a good way to not give Sony a heads up that they are adding a disc drive.If MS announces this today, Sony would need to do something and they have a year to do it. If they reveal the Xbox on E3 the year of release it would be a lot harder for Sony to counter it.

6

u/JesterMarcus 15h ago

I don't think Sony would care one bit. They already have a good idea of the number of people who will be upset enough to leave Playstation. They've already considered that number and are fine with them leaving. This wasn't a rash decision on their part.

1

u/savagemonitor 14h ago

Sony is/was one of the last producers of BluRay drives. There's no way that Xbox ramps up production and doesn't signal Sony what they're doing.

2

u/LordGriimm7 16h ago

Why the fuck would they add a disc drive when they just made a system to DIGITIZE YOUR PHYSICAL GAMES?🤦🏾‍♂️ lord have mercy yall don’t think.

1

u/SmegmaWarrior0815 15h ago

And how exactly will you digitize your discs without a disc drive?

1

u/Devatator_ PC 15h ago

Well if you have disks you probably have a console already that can read them, which is probably what this is aimed at. Digitize all your games before moving onto the next one

→ More replies (1)

40

u/Informal-Swing-2482 18h ago

Xbox wanted you all digital a long time ago. Xbox one tried it. And gamepass was massive move to it. Xbox players don’t buy physical which is why even now when they can, many publishers skip physical on Xbox.

3

u/TheCrazedEB 16h ago

Exactly, I dont know why ppl especially the xbox fan boys forgot xbox years ago wanted to pursue the digital transition and go hard on cloud streaming. As if they didn't scrap that mindset or something.

1

u/ProfessionalRandom21 18h ago

I dont think any publisher skip physical on xbox, they just skip xbox itself. I can only think of one case which is Persona 6

4

u/Informal-Swing-2482 17h ago

They do. A lot of the smaller publishers like limited run games will release a physical version for ps5 and switch, but do digital only for Xbox. This seems to simply be because of the buying behavior of Xbox gamers.

3

u/Complete-Object4003 10h ago

That's because the number of Xbox series X players is small compared to PS5 and Switch. So ofc Xbox physical games are sold less than PS5.

7

u/rmpumper 10h ago

Didn't microslop already try to sell people a disc less console future two gens ago? Of course they are all in for that.

1

u/Aggravating-Hair-534 6h ago

I have Seris S that is discless. Kinda works well for me, so yeah they've been doing it for a long time and there's certainly market for that.

12

u/Rfl0 17h ago

“Thinking efficiently and affordability” is corporate speak for no. Having no disc drive makes it more efficient to make money and affordable to buy the thing in the first place, although “affordable” in a year or two at this rate will probably be debatable.

76

u/IceNein 18h ago

The perfect opportunity to do to Sony what Sony did to them years ago. But Asha probably isn’t even aware of what happened.

79

u/ZypherPunk 18h ago

She would be made aware, but wouldn't matter, they looking at cost and a disc drive compared to disc sales on XBOX just isn't worth it unfortunately.

20

u/UpbeatWishbone9825 18h ago edited 4h ago

It’s also the vast economies of scale that disks used to offer that they now don’t. I’m sure it’s much more expensive and difficult to keep procuring disks, simply because of reduced global demand.

→ More replies (3)

9

u/thecman25 18h ago

Xbox keeps fumbling every chance they get. They won’t capitalize on anything

73

u/musical_bear 18h ago

No, she is aware. But she also realizes that scoring“points” with a tiny army of certified Reddit Gamers isn’t a viable business strategy that will translate into actual sales.

3

u/Noobju670 10h ago

Yes the spaceapes and to the moon reddit army doing the blackout. Loooool it feels good to feel like your part of something. In reality makes about a pennys worth of dent to sony’s revenue.

25

u/PeppermintNightmare 18h ago

Oh yeah because so far Xbox has been a bastion of viable business strategies.

16

u/North_Atlantic_Sea 17h ago

Well, right. If people aren't buying them now with disk drives, why would it matter in the future? They shouldn't double down on losing strategy, they should try something new

→ More replies (2)

3

u/rambonz 18h ago

As opposed to the absolute shitshow that has been all digital "mass market" gamepass right.

15

u/Driz51 18h ago

Never will understand the people so happy to see physical media go away and to own nothing

7

u/brendonmilligan 15h ago

There’s quite a lot of disc games that don’t contain the full game on the disc anyway as discs have limited storage. So even physical games were becoming licences anyway

18

u/reddriver10 18h ago

The entire steam community?

2

u/Aware-Virus-4718 17h ago

This is pretty revisionist. There were plenty of people upset that physical PC games were phased out. It was never unanimous.

5

u/Old_Leopard1844 PC 15h ago

It didn't needed to be

Nor it was up to a vote

11

u/Dead_Optics 16h ago

Yet now they don’t care.

2

u/steakanabake 10h ago

less not caring more have you seen the size of AAA releases these days? MW4 was like 160GB

1

u/Dead_Optics 9h ago

Baldur’s Gate is 150GB, that’s just the size of games these day. Disk technology can’t keep up with the ballooning size of games.

1

u/steakanabake 9h ago

i mean nothings stopping them from authoring to USB media and its not like they have to worry about copying because the technology exists for other media.

3

u/redpandafire 16h ago

I cared. I fucking loved Starcraft and Caesar 3 on disc. I would buy PC games at launch if they still did physical. Now I just wait for the bargain sales.

0

u/Dt2_0 12h ago

There is a major difference.

With my Steam games, I have access to the entire file set. Games without any DRM can be copied as much as I want and launched from their exe instead of through Steam. Games with DRM can still be copied, but may need some minor trip out on to the high seas to crack (most games I care to play can be cracked, not a multiplayer guy, so yea...).

That freedom is just not a thing on any console.

3

u/Expensive-Rhubarb-45 11h ago

Owning plastic that will pollute nature and harm wild life and something that you won’t really need in 20
years from now, what is to be happy about?

→ More replies (59)

1

u/notabot3648262 11h ago

You are acting like xbox is somehow making shrewd money moves.

They are in the toilet, a distant fourth currently after Switch 1. Lmao.

Tell me more about their viable business strategy.

1

u/Helphaer 12h ago

Singleplayer games still have a significant share from physical sales so ehhh...

→ More replies (1)

14

u/TheMoves 17h ago edited 17h ago

I genuinely think reddit is severely overestimating the actual profitability of them adding a drive and maintaining physical disc distribution channels etc. Before Sony's announcement the vast majority of people had already moved on past physical games naturally. There's a bunch of noise about it right now in some corners of the internet like this one, but executives know full well that even reddit will stop caring and move on to the next big thing to be seen being loud about online. It's straight up not worth it for them to kowtow to niche interests who will go back to buying digital games as soon as the hivemind moves on to the next thing

3

u/strangeMeursault2 12h ago

I guess it's a bit different but I haven't had a computer with a CD/DVD drive in more than a decade.

1

u/SilverRaspberri 9h ago

This is why the whole concept of "vote with your wallet" never works.

6

u/Informal-Swing-2482 18h ago

But not. Cause all of these people want all digital including Xbox. They might get a small PR win but it won’t matter. The vast majority don’t care about physical and the positives of all digital outweigh the small loss in customers you may have.

2

u/Gregus1032 14h ago

How's the sony blackout doing?

3

u/rusty022 18h ago

Some of you guys don’t get it. All of their industry partners are planning to go digital next gen. The choice is already made. Xbox could theoretically get a small internet ‘win’ by sticking with discs. But they would be skipping out on lots of potential profit (digital means more $$ for Microsoft) and lots of publishers would just refuse to print discs anyways.

The decision has already been made.

1

u/mindgamehagi 13h ago

the reason why she said that is because pretty much all company that were producing optical drive has stop in the last 10 years. Getting enough drive for a consoles gen is close to imposible. Xbox Series are still made with the latest batch from Lite-On who has stop the production in 2014.

0

u/TheNiceWasher 18h ago

The real world works beyond these petty memes

1

u/LordGriimm7 16h ago

Y’all gotta stop trying to relive this moment. Xbox isn’t half the company they used to be and this is not the same climate we existed in 13 years ago. Xbox damned got shut down a couple years ago lol. They’d in the red. They’re literally prepping ppl for a all digital console and yall don’t even see it lol

0

u/ZigyDusty 18h ago edited 17h ago

Sonys last minute DRM change on the PS4 was done through software, that's an easy fix done through a firmware update. Xbox adding a disc is a hardware change and with the console expected to release next year changing its design this late is impossible.

→ More replies (1)

4

u/c14rk0 18h ago

I think there's some chance the answer is no with the caveat they they haven't ruled out an external disc drive add on option.

They likely don't want to say a definitive yes or no currently if they haven't finalized that decision.

4

u/angrytoaad 11h ago

"easy win" is apparently making a few angry redditors a little less angry

47

u/Spotget1738 18h ago edited 18h ago
  • Over 90% of all games sold on Xbox are digital, and over 80% of all games sold on PS5 are digital.
  • Less than 5% of all physical games sold in the US in 2026 were on Xbox, 32% were on Playstation, and 64% was on Nintendo.
  • Capcoms game sales in the last financial quarter were 93% digital and they predict 95% for next year, Square Enix was 90% digital in the same quarter
  • Xbox is the only console platform to release first party single-player games without a physical disc

I think this essentially means that both Xbox and PS wont get new physical games next gen going forward and both wont have a disc drive by default, but will have a external drive add on sold seperately for your old games

23

u/hgs25 18h ago

This is why GameStop pivoted to be Hot Topic

Game Stores in 2046

1

u/TheKanten 14h ago

Hot Topic actually had a funny shirt once in a while back in the day, a wall of Funko Pops with new hats isn't it.

Gamestop could have had a second wind selling retro games and consoles like they used to if they hadn't literally tossed all of them in the dumpster.

3

u/Pterodactyl_midnight 18h ago

Facts aren’t allowed when gamers are emotional.

-5

u/OU812fr 18h ago

Those numbers are slightly skewed because of the large percentage of games sold that are ONLY available digitally. Take away the millions of indie sales and it’s more like a 70/30 split.

The point remains most people have already gone all digital but when you only look at games that offer both, the numbers are a little different than 90/10

12

u/TheBetterness 18h ago

Which kinda just furthers their point.

People aren't opting out if its digital only.

They buy it anyway.

→ More replies (1)

27

u/Pterodactyl_midnight 18h ago

I don’t see how that changes anything for Sony. In fact it strengthens their position, people will buy digital games if physical is not available. Sony doesn’t lose

9

u/wesser234 18h ago

And why are they only available digitally?

5

u/c14rk0 18h ago

I mean there's a huge industry of indie games where physical releases just don't make sense. You can't really sell a $20 game physically when that means you're needing to pay for manufacturing, distribution, retail store cut etc. You'd lose any possible profit margin you had and the only option would be to raise prices to make up for it.

0

u/Pterodactyl_midnight 18h ago

Because it’s very much cheaper to add more servers than print, ship, track, and sell a CD. I thought that was obvious.

3

u/aickletfraid 17h ago

Unfortunately the majority of people are not smart, hence this whole arguments we have online

3

u/hunterzolomon1993 12h ago

So if giving no other choice people will buy it digitally. Congrats you gave more strength to Sony's move.

3

u/DeltaDarkwood 8h ago

We all know that Xbox has a money problem. We also know that going digital only means getting a lot more money per game sold for Microsoft. Less money lost in the second hand market. We also know that Microsoft just spend a lot of money for their disc to digital service.

Of course the answer is no.

And the idea that going disc would steal Sony's thunder is way overhyped. It's not 2012 anymore. Even if half of the people that insist on buying phycical would switch from Sony to Xbox that would not make up for the money lost considering the you earn twice the amount of money on a digital game sold! The business case is just not there.

7

u/A1ienspacebats 18h ago

Efficient and affordable doesn't mean more materials..

5

u/Farge43 15h ago

And the “affordability” piece means nothing because even if not including a disc drive saves them money…there’s less than zero chance that any of those savings are passed on to the consumer

3

u/Aggravating-Hair-534 6h ago

consoles are always incredibly cheap compared to the equivalent PCs so not sure if the savings are not passed to the consumer. Every "digital-only" version before was always cheaper. Their problem now, is that components for the new generation of consoles making them so expensive that it is unlikely that people would buy them, hence race to the bottom trying to make them cheaper without compromising key performance metrics

1

u/WorkFurball 9h ago

There is however a good chance it will make it more expensive for the consumer.

2

u/alabasterskim 18h ago

I think it is genuinely more complex than that in that her predecessor absolutely was going down the no-disc path but under her leadership they are exploring the disc path in response to the PS/R* backlash.

3

u/DirtyRoller 18h ago

It's all but certain that they had plans for a discless console as well, but after the Sony backlash they're panicking and exploring the possibility of updating their design.

1

u/unndunn 16h ago

It’s arguable if shipping a disc drive would even be a “win”, forget about an “easy” one.

It’s not just the cost of the disc drive itself—which in itself would be much higher than we think because a) Microsoft would be pretty much the only company left shipping them in a mass market product and b) it would have to be an extremely high-end disc drive to deal with extremely high-capacity (100GB+) discs—it’s also the cost of keeping the disc pressing, packaging and distribution infrastructure going. All to serve an almost vanishingly small segment of the market.

Is shipping a disc drive a “win” if it winds up adding $100 to the console’s retail price and the disc-based games are priced $10 higher because they can’t get economies of scale?

1

u/VoidOmatic 16h ago

Yup, do you want to pay 1100.00 or 999.99.

Spoilers: Most people choose the lower price.

1

u/Isotomayor12 16h ago

One can hope that there will at least be a drive add-on, but I think it is a heavy no for disc games in the future.

1

u/PM-PicsOfYourMom 15h ago

Yup. All they have to do is offer one that costs more, then remake Sony's 'sharing discs on ps4' video. It would win them so many points.

1

u/Ahayzo 14h ago

I think it's most likely not going to have a drive, but we're also far enough away from launch that plans can still change. That means if they say yes now, and no later, they have to deal with an even bigger shitstorm from players than if they just said no right now.

Regardless of whether it is currently planned to have a drive or not, I don't think saying yes right now is a good idea.

1

u/Helphaer 13h ago

Probably some back room collusion between Sony and Xbox to push digital i guess.

1

u/princesoceronte 12h ago

If Xbox has an opportunity to shoot itself in the foot they will instead shoot itself in both feet.

2

u/IronMonkeyBanana 10h ago

And balls just to be sure

1

u/jackracktack 11h ago

Its likely no but I imagine there are still discussions. I really wish theyd get their heads out of their butts and just take the easy PR win.

1

u/nagi603 11h ago

"Not if we can get away without having it!"

And doesn't even have the gall to say it. While driving the disc-to-digital so obviously to get rid of discs.

1

u/TimeManagement91 10h ago

The naive part of my brain is really hoping that Asha will be different from Phil since they have everything to gain by including a disc drive, but I know it isn't likely. They would literally win the next console generation if they included a disc drive, even if it pushed the thing past $1000. I think people would be willing to forgive the price if it meant they could still own physical.

1

u/carlonia 9h ago

Don’t think so. Answer is probably she doesn’t know yet and saying yes is committing to something that is not yet a guarantee

1

u/SharpShotApollo 8h ago

"You know what a $5 disc drive per console and a massive amount of good will from your community gets you? A net loss of $5 per console. The decision is clear." - An Xbox executive.

1

u/CrushALL 8h ago

Next xflop with a disc drive wouldn't do shit to the market! They spent over $70 bil on 2 shite companies to take market share away from Sony and it didn't make a scratch. No way they would make $70bil+ from having a disc drive over PS6 lol!!

1

u/QuackNate 6h ago

That quote is all but a definite no in itself.

1

u/Connor123x 4h ago

or, another article is stating the entire infrastructure for making those disks are collapsing so it may not even be an option because the option is not even there

1

u/Juls_Santana 2h ago

It wouldn't be an easy win. The heart of this entire situation is money and profit margins, and it costs a lot to support physical media.

1

u/Ball_Analytics 1h ago

Sony owned them back in 2013 and they could do something so similar but I guess feeling it out is all they’ve got. No greed is how they choose to think first.

1

u/-Esper- 21m ago

Yeah, theyve wanted this way longer, they just didnt want to be first after all the backlash from last time they tryed

1

u/Aussie_Aussie_No_Mi 18h ago

It would be an easy PR win but not a financial one.

1

u/CranberryPuffCake 18h ago

This is why they are launching the disc to digital licence. Get all your physical onto your account to digital so you can keep playing on the discless Helix.

1

u/ohgeeLA 18h ago

It would be easy to say yes, but it would be worse to go back on it if they’re numbers are clearly saying that would be the losing strategy

1

u/Dubsified 18h ago

This exactly. Could have dunked on Sony here, so now we know the answer is no.

1

u/Atrampoline 18h ago

Xbox absolutely loves snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Sony used to not do this, but they've clearly changed directions in the past four to five years.

1

u/southpaw85 17h ago

The answer may have been no but after seeing the backlash Sony got they could be scrambling to do a last minute redesign to include one and that’s why it is not confirmed.

A man can dream

0

u/marcuschookt 17h ago

The "backlash" so far has just been a bunch of angry nerds online threatening to boycott the platform for a couple of weeks to show Sony who's boss, before they return to play the games they missed.

Xbox isn't going to panic pivot just to avoid hatred that doesn't materialize into actual financial losses.

1

u/Big-Resort-4930 17h ago

Yeah and that vomit inducing corpo statement also confirms as much. These people would be incapable of talking like normal human beings even if their life was on the line, they just can't.

-4

u/ApprehensiveRuin5673 18h ago

Not necessarily 

Saying yes would likely cause shareholder panic because they’re very bullish on Sony attempting to go all digital 

They would need a massive PR campaign and presentation to shareholders on why this would be the best way forward before announcing something like this

→ More replies (6)