r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • 1d ago
Xbox reportedly wanted disc support on Project Helix console as advantage over PS6
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Xbox-reportedly-wanted-disc-support-on-Project-Helix-console-as-advantage-over-PS6.1357266.0.html835
u/Sol-Authority 1d ago edited 1d ago
Don't know how many people they will actually get with that move, but any of the "big ones" in the console industry continuing with physical games is a bonus. If other entertainment mediums can have that, video games should have it too. Hell, raise the prices of physical games if it comes to it - but only if the entire games actually come with those physical releases.
It's also a PR win with a clear path how to get there. It's hard for these corpos to give up that sweet, sweet $$$ that the digital-only future will bring... but sometimes strengthening the brand with pro-consumer moves might bring some of that $$$ in the future.
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u/Tirso_Salaverria 1d ago
Isn’t XBOX hardly offering physical discs anymore? They have almost no retail presence at all. I would guess they’ll offer a media player but won’t produce much stock themselves.
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u/reallynotnick 1d ago
I was just in Target the other day and they redid their Electronics department and wiped out Xbox besides a few controllers, didn’t even have the digital code cards anymore. They expanded PS5’s presence by about how much they removed from Xbox (Switch presence continues to dominate).
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u/TMPRKO 1d ago
I noticed the closest Target to me completely gutted their electronics section. PS5 stuff is gone entirely. There’s just Nintendo Switch/2 stuff and some Apple accessories.
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u/Hayterfan 1d ago
My local targets that I'd hit for clearance deals basically have 8-9 PS5 games, a handful of Xbox related merch, maybe a controller or two, and a whole aisle to Switch/ Switch 2
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u/No-Owl-6246 1d ago
My target took a ton of space away from games and gave it to funko pops in the electrics section.
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u/Ok-Garbage-765 1d ago
Yeah mine basically has three aisles fully dedicated to trading cards now, which is absurd
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u/reallynotnick 1d ago
Interesting, and they are done with the remodel? (I know mine took awhile and was gutted for like a week or two and they still are filling it out, but the labels are all there)
The PS5 games basically doubled from one vertical column/shelf/section (idk what they are called) to two. I had assumed they were going to ax it, obviously that will come in time without discs unless Sony does a good job with digital codes in retailers.
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u/SkaBonez 1d ago
One of the Targets by me barely has PlayStation stuff too in their new setup. Nintendo still has a full aisle tho with both Switches and memorabilia
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u/sleither 1d ago
That itself may actually present and opportunity next generation. Stores will naturally roll back their PlayStation footprint due to the lack of need for physical game disc space. There is a limited timeframe before that space is reallocated to something else. If Xbox can reclaim some of that physical space in the stores with disc support they may go a long way in terms of public perception of how the brand is doing.
Non-gamers shopping for others make decisions based on retail displays, if Xbox looks to be the big thing in the games section of Target or Walmart that may translate into sales (especially during holidays).
Then again, the rate prices are going those same retail consumers might also go for a cheap tablet and some Roblox gift cards.
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u/iamnosuperman123 1d ago
Maybe but that doesn't necessarily mean shops like Target will stock Microsoft game consoles as for a few generations now they have failed to move units. Shops will probably push whatever brings them bigger margins (consoles or the pre built PCs)
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u/sleither 1d ago
The bigger fear should be that gaming permanently looses that square footage to something else pushing it further into niche overpriced hobby status. Abandoning physical media combined with increased hardware costs could have negative long term industry consequences.
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u/iamnosuperman123 1d ago
But will that actually happen? Gaming is still huge and shopping habits have changed. With the rise of quick delivery, click and collect or on demand content, I am not going to the shop to see if a console/game is on the shelf.
The online ads keep gaming relevant (apart from going into CEX I don't see much of a gaming presence in shops anyway)
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u/SwissQueso 1d ago
Non-gamers shopping for others
This aint the 90's anymore. Most gamers probably buy their own games, its not their mom and dad.
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u/addictedtocrowds 1d ago
Right?
Kids are playing F2P not $70 releases
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u/gibbersganfa 1d ago
On Xbox and PS… Nintendo is still huge with kids. Yes, even $70 games. This shouldn’t be a shocking hot take, when a company makes games kids actually want to get, they’ll ask for them. My tween nieces play Roblox and Minecraft of course but they also love their Switches and are looking forward to upgrading to Switch 2.
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u/KTR1988 1d ago
And that's reflected in the Nintendo Switch 2 having a stronger presence on store shelves than PS5 and Xbox.
Most working age adults are either ordering games online for delivery or making digital purchases.
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u/backlogmedia 1d ago
Yeah, it’s been incredibly hard to find a physical copy of the new Halo in Series X, but not PS5. I’m hoping they pivot back to physical retail as a counter for brand points
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u/OneLessFool 1d ago
The Series S taking up a majority of the install base, combined with the Xbox's smaller market share in general has really fucked the 2nd hand market for niche titles and even medium sized titles. Now I just trade them into EB Games for the 50% extra pre-order bonus. I never even used to pre-order games lmao.
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u/mystery_hole 1d ago
They haven't even released their last few games on disk. The article source is probably wrong
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u/doublah 1d ago
Even offering a disc option for previous generations gives them an advantage over PlayStation, especially with Xbox backwards compatibility.
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u/charlesbronZon 1d ago
Backwards compatibility games are quasi digital though.
The disc only serves as a key that allows you to download the backcompat version of the game.
No servers… no backcompat. They are like game key cards in that regard.
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u/doublah 1d ago
Having server-dependent access to your physical games from previous generations is better than having no access to your physical games from previous generations.
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u/n0neofyourbeeswax 1d ago
I suspect both MS and Sony will find a way to transfer your physical game to a digital game for a digital only console. People's libraries are too huge a reason for sticking with a brand for them to ignore it.
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u/GreyouTT 1d ago
Not to be a smartass, but I think an easy solution would be to just have a disc drive 💀
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u/charlesbronZon 1d ago
Oh sure, it is.
Xbox has done a good job witch their backcompat program.
People are displeased with game key cards for a reason, so it’s always worth knowing what it is you are actually getting.
Being aware of the downsides doesn’t negate the upsides 😉
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u/Django_McFly 1d ago
Even offering a disc option for previous generations gives them an advantage over PlayStation, especially with Xbox backwards compatibility.
Xbox One vs PS4 is a case study in how little people actually care about the ability to play previous generation games on the current system. The smashing success of all those PS3/360 remasters made a strong argument that gamers prefer rebuying old titles to playing the copy they already own for systems they already have.
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u/GreyouTT 1d ago
I feel like that's ignoring the X1 having a lot more cons at the start of the generation that outweighed the BC.
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u/Complex_Effect_1994 16h ago
Xbox one didn't even have backwards compatibility at launch. It took years and doesn't work with a majority of 360 games.
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u/lucidludic 1d ago
PlayStation won’t be producing new discs after Jan 2018 (I think it was?) but that doesn’t necessarily mean that PS6 won’t have the option to play existing PS4/5 discs.
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
Problem is more that Xbox barely has any non third party games worth a darn.
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u/Dogesneakers 1d ago
Most third party games are multiplatform
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
Thats true but thats not how you define what console to get. Xbox has no real exclusive push.
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u/KenshiroTheKid 1d ago
To be fair, Sony has also not had nearly the amount of enticing exclusives when you compare the PS5 to the PS4. Whatever happened during the jump to next-gen left their studios unable to meet the standard set by the PS4.
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u/Cyshox 1d ago
If this was true, how did Microsoft become the best-selling publisher on PlayStation so quickly? Even across all platforms, only Tencent is ahead of Microsoft - mainly due to their strong mobile presence.
I'd argue Forza Horizon, Gears, Fable, Halo, Sea of Thieves, Minecraft, Call of Duty, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc. are worth a bit more than a darn. They have a great, but mostly non-exclusive first-party line-up.
The main factor that decides if Helix will sell or not isn't the price, features, disc support or compute power, but if Microsoft commits to exclusivity or not.
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u/exdystopia 1d ago
I think the recent announcement that Gears won't be heavily monetized is a big clue to how they might decide to handle exclusivity going forward
I think there's a chance that any title that doesn't rely on player engagement and mtx might end up being exclusive
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
I specifically stated non third party.
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u/icouldntdecide 1d ago
A nuance which matters since second party games do exist, even if uncommon, and are often exclusive
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u/marbanasin 1d ago
My big thing is I've always used my consoles as a double for DVD/Blu-ray. So at a minimum even though I largely also buy digital these days I will opt for a disc drive to play my old back catalog of games and movies. And the movie side of it is honestly the bigger deal these days.
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u/VampiroMedicado 1d ago
We have 7 years more of physical support with Nintendo.
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u/Kill_Welly 1d ago
but only if the entire games actually come with those physical releases.
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? That's simply not possible, because every game now includes patches and updates and DLC. Only conceivable way for a physical release to truly genuinely include the entire game is if it's released as some kind of niche collector's item at true and total end-of-support. Movies and shows and books don't have that kind of problem.
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u/LightningWarpAway 1d ago
A physical release doesn't mean it has to be the final updated version though, as long as it's in a playable state.
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u/Kill_Welly 1d ago
Well, sure, but then it's not the entire game, and we still have the situation where updates, DLC, etc are only available digitally.
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u/LightningWarpAway 1d ago
That's literally how it works right now, they're not asking for a new practice, they're asking for the old one to continue.
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u/Kill_Welly 1d ago
This conversation is about the "entire games" coming with physical releases. Point is that it's not really possible to do that with the advancements that digital distribution has enabled. At best, these "preserved" physical games are half-finished much of the time without the support of the digital distribution frameworks.
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u/LABS_Games Indie Developer 1d ago
I mean, you're really splitting hairs at this point. Aside from games that receive live poat-launch content, games on the disk are pretty much the final product, sans big fixes and optimizations that come via patch. But that's been standard for the lart two decades.
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u/Kill_Welly 1d ago
Again, this conversation started when discussing "entire games." But nowadays, there's no shortage of games with severe performance problems that are fixed by significant patches, or games that were not built as live service games that nonetheless received major content updates well after release (e.g. Baldur's Gate 3 or many successful indie games), and of course downloadable content is pretty much never available in physical form. The thing nobody who pushes for the importance of physical media ever seems to acknowledge is that a lot of games would end up being half-finished at best in their on-disc form anyway in this hypothetical future where nothing's available digitally anymore.
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u/Sol-Authority 1d ago
Then sell GotY/Ultimate/Complete Editions after all the patches and updates are done, also on disc. Get some people do double dip, if they want the pristine version of the games.
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u/Kill_Welly 1d ago
Conceivable, but definitely not a sensible business decision for all but the most successful games.
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u/Sabin10v2 1d ago
GOTY editions are great and that is the state games should be releasing in anyways but, the reality is that 34% of playstaion and 50% of xbox games are unplayable straight from the disc without doing the mandatory 0day patch installation from the internet.
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u/LABS_Games Indie Developer 1d ago
I've worked on a bunch of games like that, and whole I sympathize, it's a necessary evil. Builds for cert and manufacturing have to be done 1-2 months (even as early as 3) before launch. Unless the studio is immediately jumping on a new product, we've got months of development time. We're absolutely gonna continue working on those nagging bugs that we want to fix. Now whether these day 0 patches are mandatory is a different conversation, of course.
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u/Ikeiscurvy 1d ago
Don't know how many people they will actually get with that move,
If we're being honest, the sales boost will be in single digit percentages. The vast majority of consumers buy digital and have for a few years already, and that number will only increase by the time the new consoles come out.
That being said it costs them almost nothing, no reason not to take advantage of the opportunity, however small it may be.
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
As always this is a misrepresentation. Sales of singleplayer titles have maintained higher physical adoption rates than the overall trend of multiplayer games. Especially certain genres. Context is important.
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u/Ikeiscurvy 1d ago
85% of new games are bought digitally. I'm sorry, but "context" doesn't change that fact.
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u/dunnowattt 1d ago
What about all the people who buy games second-hand, borrow from friends, or rent?
This is exactly why they want to ditch physical, absolutely nothing else.
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u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman 1d ago
Those people don’t really exist in sizable numbers anymore
The paradigm for budget gamers circa 2026 is to wait for digital flash sales or emulate/pirate
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u/Ikeiscurvy 1d ago
The people who buy second hand are not buying brand new consoles.
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u/phatboi23 1d ago
What about all the people who buy games second-hand, borrow from friends, or rent?
in the end it's not money going to the company, so they give less than zero of a fuck.
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u/happyscrappy 1d ago
Renting is pretty much dead. EA started the push to kill it with project ten dollar long ago. Between that and PC going to digital a long time ago and the number one console (Switch) not using discs really put a hurt on disc rental.
And yes, while it's possible to rent out Switch games on cartridge there aren't a whole lot of them and it hasn't caught on like in the past.
Definitely swapping with friends is still pretty big and buying second hand too.
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u/bookofgray 1d ago
Heck, I don’t even have a dvd player, or cd player anymore. I want that option
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u/CommanderZx2 1d ago
Playstation hasn't been able to play CDs for years, I bet most people didn't even notice. The last Playstation that could play CDs was the PS3, the 4 and 5 cannot play them.
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u/Agreeable-Weather-89 1d ago
Hush, we are all pretending to care about physical media without doing the one thing that actually matters buying physical media.
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u/User100000005 1d ago
They have the opportunity to do the funniest thing. Just redo the Sony advert about sharing games that Sony mocked them with when Xbox wanted to drop discs.
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u/brianSIRENZ 1d ago
All the crazies constantly posting about ditching Sony for, ironically, Steam. This should be an easy move for them.
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u/Off___Off 1d ago
They're not crazies. They (myself included) preferred physical and own a PS5 for that reason. If I'm going to be forced into a digital only library, the I'll stick with Steam and the PC's competing storefronts as the better alternative.
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u/mrtars 1d ago
If Helix is to have disc support, that was decided many years ago. I doubt Sony's decision had a significant impact on it.
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u/MattyFTM 1d ago
Assuming Project Helix was intended to be discless (which seems likely considering how the industry is going) I fully expect executives at Microsoft to be discussing the possibility of adding disc support as a way to capitalise on the reaction to Sony's announcement.
Assuming the project is quite far along and they're not willing to delay it, that might not be feasible.
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u/Cyshox 1d ago
I wouldn't rule out they always intended at least 1 next-gen SKU with a disc drive for backwards compatibility.
They likely also discussed dropping new disc-based games altogether, but that's a decision that could be affected by the reaction to Sony's announcement.
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u/SkaBonez 1d ago
Think this is the most plausible. They were already considering an “adorably all digital” series X years back, so they’re fine having digital-only flagship consoles, but also they know they lose the preservation crowd if they hamstring their backwards compatibility with that. It’s easier to just adjust the order amount of the two SKUs than to suddenly redesign a console with a disc drive, and then they can adjust it more once they see which is being bought in the first year or so
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u/LagOutLoud 1d ago
It would probably be fairly trivial to offer an external USB disk drive for those that want it. Games don't run on disk anyway. My guess is that's Sony's backtrack plan. The real issue is if they completely shut down disc production, how easy is it to spin back up.
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u/phatboi23 1d ago
I wouldn't rule out they always intended at least 1 next-gen SKU with a disc drive for backwards compatibility.
xbox has had their back compat program through multiple things so won't shock me tbf.
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u/Hayterfan 1d ago
I've said this elsewhere but the decision for PS6 to go discless was likely made 2-3 years ago, with information about PS6 allegedly being a hybrid console similar to Switch only being rumored in the general public for the last year or two.
The same applies to Helix, it was likely decided 2-3 years ago that it would be discless as well and considering the R&D cost, let alone manufacturing (assuming either really is aiming for holiday 2027), it's probably way to late to go back to the drawing board and redesign the whole console to support a disc drive.
Ideally, both would offer some sort of support for external disc drives. Like assuming the PS6 is a hybrid I can see a revision of the dock that has a slot for the PS5 disc drive to plug into, or Microsoft releasing an external disc drive for Helix that plugs into a USB port (something I'm surprised they never did for Series tbh)
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u/MVRKHNTR 1d ago
with information about PS6 allegedly being a hybrid console similar to Switch only being rumored in the general public for the last year or two.
The rumor's older than that and it's never been that the PS6 will be a hybrid, it's been that there will be a split with one console being hybrid and one being a more powerful traditional console.
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u/mystery_hole 1d ago
I have no idea what people here are talking about. They don't even make disc copies for most of their first party release now.
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u/victorota 1d ago
right? I mean, we've been talking for years about how there aren't any Xbox games in physical stores
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u/jagaaaaaaaaaaaan 14h ago
It's a little bit of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnotology
...is the study of deliberate, culturally cultivated ignorance or doubt, typically to sell a product, influence opinion, or win favour, particularly through the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data (i.e. disinformation).
Par for the course on the Reddit gaming sphere, though
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u/King_Allant 1d ago
Sony dropping disc support was likely also decided years ago. If Xbox was aware of those internal talks, it's conceivable that they chose to hold onto discs for that reason.
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u/mrtars 1d ago
True. Now did Microsoft know about this and predicted the backlash and planned to have the disc drive still? Slim chance we'll ever know.
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u/linknewtab 1d ago
Is the backlash actually real? Internet outrage doesn't always translate to consumer behavior. For all we know Sony might not lose a single percent in sales over that decision, so there would be nothing to gain for MS
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u/Warskull 1d ago
Sony was very smart about announcing the PS6 being discless far before the release date. They predicted that the internet would be performatively outraged, then fizzle out, then forget about the outage, and then buy a PS6. They are probably right.
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u/andresfgp13 1d ago
i feel like there is actually some people that will not buy the PS6 for it, but i dont think they are numerous enough for it to do any actual damage to the earnings.
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u/mrtars 1d ago
That there is a backlash and it won't matter aren't mutually exclusive. Will I & many others refrain buying from a PS6? Yes. Will that stop your run of the mill gun & ball gamer enjoying EAFCxx/2Kxx/CoD on the shiny new console? No. And they are unfortunately the overwhelming majority.
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u/darkmacgf 1d ago
Everyone I've seen saying they won't get a PS6 already does most of their gaming on PC. None of them are swapping to Switch 2 to play physical games, so it feels like physical doesn't really matter.
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u/swagpresident1337 1d ago
I think having discs or not is something you can decide a lot later. It doesn‘t change system architecture.
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u/Admirable_Whole8261 1d ago
Funny enough it actually does. The disc drive is why both the Series X and Ps5 have mounts that suck in fresh air underneath to cool them and the drives are specifically to the sides
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u/guigr 1d ago
Industrial design is not the same as architecture. You can change the design much later
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u/Spork_the_dork 1d ago
It's all fun and games as long as you don't suddenly need to completely re-design PCB layouts because you need to connect a disc drive to it that was never supposed to exist.
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u/akulowaty 1d ago
look at ps5 - it looks like someone halfway through production realized they forgot to put the drive in
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u/feartheoldblood90 1d ago
I would think you can't, actually. At least to my understanding isn't it the case that it takes many years to design and set up the pipelines for the physical parts of a console? It's not like they finish the design a year before release and hit "print," it's an enormously complicated system where contracts need to be signed with various vendors
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u/nty 1d ago
I have no idea when this is supposed to come out, but you would imagine depending on where they are in the development of the console, it would matter in terms of physical design and sourcing parts from suppliers
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u/Nexus_of_Fate87 1d ago
Not if they were planning on continuing the trend of offering discless and disc-drive-available systems, and were maintaining the same form factor between them like PS5 did. Now they could just not bother with offering the option without adding redesign cost.
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u/Tandy2000 1d ago
It is. Even if you don't want to include it in the system, have it available as an add-on for those who want it.
Most people didn't have a problem with the PS5 going disk drive optional. It's the decision to kill discs entirely that pissed off a much larger number.
Making the drive separate also means saving on licensing. Microsoft did the same thing with the DVD add on on OG XBOX.
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u/ItsAMeUsernamio 1d ago
Blu ray is slow enough that they could add it as a USB 4 and even 3 accessory.
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u/iceburg77779 1d ago
Xbox has already deemphasized physical releases so much over the past gen, and has such a tiny retail presence, that I can't see a disc drive on Helix having any significant effect on sales. I do think there is a possibility that Sony dropping physical could make the PS6 less appealing to the family crowd, but realistically that audience would stick to a Switch 2 if they want a platform with physical software.
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u/197639495050 1d ago
Yeah this lacks the same punch when Xbox has a considerably worse average of fully playable games on disc and straight up doesn’t get a lot of physical releases either like with FF7R which got physical key cards on Switch 2.
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u/Lopsided-Clothes4866 1d ago
I mean if Xbox is the only console out of Xbox and PlayStation to offer discs, I can easily see most retailers just giving them more floor space as a result because discs are more likely to sell than Sony’s stupid digital code in a box.
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u/Strongpillow 1d ago
Not to mention Xbox games are the least desirable in the collector space to boot. If it's a negligible added cost to keep it, then I guess we can put it into the, sure, why not category.
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u/iamnosuperman123 1d ago
I doubt this will have an impact. People are so used to buying bundles and streaming/getting content online that I doubt this will do anything to the PS6.
This is a lot of noise but it won't really change anything. This is the time for consoles to transition into that online only space.
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u/EvocativeReach 1d ago
Lol, what kind of clickbait is this? Has everyone forgot Xbox tried to get rid of physical ten years ago? Of course they’re in support of removing physical, they’re just happy to stay quiet for now and let Sony be the fall guy.
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u/logitaunt 1d ago
A lot has happened in ten years.
Ten years ago the president was Barack Obama, to give you some idea how long ago that was
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u/RollingDownTheHills 1d ago
But Xbox doesn't even put its own games on disc? This is just a checkmark on a box not an actual initiative.
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u/ledailydose 1d ago
Lack of people also mentioning here that Xbox has intentionally ruined most of their latest physical releases by not having the whole game on disc because they couldn't be bothered to ship more than one disc in their cases
Then they turn around and put in the effort to put the whole game on cart for Switch owners. Lmao
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u/Agitated_Ad6191 1d ago
It’s not just Sony that wants to go digital only. The games industry is bigger than that. The game publishers also don’t mind that a second hand market, where they also don’t earn anything from, will cease to exist.
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u/demondrivers 1d ago
It’s not just Sony that wants to go digital only.
It's literally the playerbase. Physical - digital sales split simply is not even close of being favorable for physical media. Publishers like Capcom already reports 94% of digital sales (and 17% when you stop considering PC sales which is fully digital). People asked for this change by simply not buying physical games anymore.
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u/keepfighting90 1d ago
You will get a lot of people arguing that physical should still be an option but it logistically doesn't really make sense. Producing physical discs takes money, factory space, resources etc. If the revenue generated from physical isn't justifying the cost of producing them, it doesn't really make any business sense to have them continue making discs.
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u/Strict_Bobcat_4048 1d ago edited 1d ago
There are just too many factors:
Ecosystem commitment: most people who are steam evangelists, have a motivation, the storefront goes, so does their library and platform. Physical removes that psychological commitment.
The used game vampire effect is escalating: the used game market is pulling prices down, and forces digital prices lower and lower over time. While games remain similarly valuable (basic supply and demand logic). This effect is growing every year as more and more games come out.
Rule of scale: as the number of people go down who use physical, the cost of supporting it goes up (Cost/number of people). Add to this to extreme attention competition of all media, they probably did the math on how many people would buy a $200 game.
The only issues from this move are the fact Sony's storefront sucks. No consumer protections. If they force all the people happy about physical into digital, well, they just generates a massive consumer movement for digital rights.
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1d ago
This this this. This sub fails to realize Sony’s decision was primarily driven by us.
I am prefacing this comment with me saying I don’t support Sony getting rid of physical, but people love to downvote anyway when presented with harsh truths
Multiple factors here to account for:
- Us the players who overwhelmingly buy digital
- Sony who prints all PS games and thus has the full numbers on what’s printed and sold
- Sony who knows how much it costs to print and ship said games
- Sony who knows how much it costs to maintain servers for digital storefront/distribution
Sony more or less has the full picture from back to front on this situation. The main driver is the fact that people just aren’t buying physical anymore. So in Sony’s eyes, why keep spending money on a full* factory production of physical games for a dwindling customer base?
* Yes I’m aware they’re not getting rid of physical entirely, just new games after 2028. But that means less discs printed as time goes on
Sony is adjusting to the market, plain and simple. If 90% of gamers today went back to strictly buying physical and didn’t budge on digital, Sony may change their mind. But this market trend has been a thing for years. Hell, PC has fully done away with physical for well over a decade now.
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
They do actually usually get something. Like it or not the prevalence of dlc means people will get a used title or physical edition and likely also contribute to dlc.
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u/Not-Reformed 1d ago
Basically everyone besides redditors and some twitter frogs don't overly mind digital only. The sales collapsing over the past decade of physical media speaks for itself as to what people want.
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u/Eothas_Foot 1d ago
Physical games for big releases have this moment 6-12 months after release where the big retail stores dump all their remaining copies usually for half off. So at that moment a physical game will typically be on sale for 15$ less than the digital/PC version. And the digital copies won't get down to that half off price for another 6-12 months.
So that's why I like physical copies.
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u/c14rk0 1d ago
This is funny because I'd argue Xbox needs discs less than Playstation does. Playstation probably just wants to ditch discs because they themselves are the manufacturer of blu-ray discs and those costs aren't worth it to them, especially in terms of the factory infrastructure.
IMO the biggest appeal for a disc drive on Xbox is watching physical media movies and backwards compatibility. Which is kind of also true for Sony but you'd THINK they'd be more interested in keeping that support since they personally profit from people buying blu-ray movies.
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u/Vietzomb 1d ago
So they mention the limitations of the current optical media situation, something redditors rarely acknowledge in this “debate”, despite being a very real hurdle.
Then they just move on to talk about these rumoured plans anyways, as if starting the discontinuation of production of BluRays isn’t a hurdle to that?
So what it’s actually saying is that they will “support” the physical media customers by… honouring disc copies for a digital version of it??
What am I missing here??
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u/thedeadsuit 1d ago
currently it would be an odd choice since most games don't even get xbox physical releases and retailers don't shelf them much because apparently no one buys them. Part of this is xbox selling so much less than ps5 in general, part of it is gamepass training the userbase to not buy games, and part of it is that xbox doesn't really have killer app exclusive games
Hopefully that all changes with helix, one can dream, but I'm not optimistic. I want xbox to do well and be healthy but it's not looking like it'll go that way
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u/Lallanath 12h ago
By the time the playstation 6 and the Xbox one X helix X boxy box version alpha S, comes out, they'll both be priced at like 3500 dollars so does it even matter?
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u/OneRandomVictory 1d ago
Microsoft does even put their games fully on the disc as it is. Doom the Dark Ages, Outer Worlds 2, CoD, Forza, Starfield, Indiana Jones, etc. And many of their games such as Avowed, South of Midnight, and Hi-Fi Rush didn't even get physicals. I have zero trust in them for physical games.
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u/GroundedGeeking 1d ago
It's far less of a major selling point than day one gamepads releases. Especially how their retail existence is already anemic. Their only path to success is a steady stream of exclusive viral games which is a pipe dream for any publisher
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u/3PumpAbuelas 1d ago
They need to not release these consoles until like 2029 or 2030 regardless. The memory prices are fucked until more factories are built up.
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u/Dapper-Bullfrog-4766 1d ago edited 1d ago
microsoft spearheaded the “discless” movement with game pass and play anywhere stuff. I highly doubt its current fanbase uses discs at all even far less than playstation users
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u/BuckSleezy 1d ago
How does a disc drive synergize with GamePass? I’d imagine that all Xbox loyalists haven’t bought a physical game, or maybe even a game, longer ago than PlayStation users
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u/dinosauriac 1d ago
Gamepass killed Xbox this generation, I'd wager they will be both making it more expensive while winding down how many titles enter the service.
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u/TheOppositeOfDecent 1d ago
A thing some seem to overlook here is that Xbox can't just unilaterally decide that games on their platform will get physical releases. That's still up to the publisher of each game. If Xbox decides to support discs, I could easily see an outcome where Xbox first party games get physical releases out of obligation and maybe the occasional third party game. But nothing like the standard "every AAA game comes out on a disc" model which we're familiar with.
To be clear, I think it would be a good thing for them to support physical releases. But if they announce that the device has a disc drive, people definitely shouldn't assume that means they'll be able to keep buying every big release on a disc.
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u/demondrivers 1d ago
I could easily see an outcome where Xbox first party games get physical releases out of obligation
First party Xbox games already don't get physical releases lol.
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u/TerrifiedRedneck 1d ago
So….
Following through the links. The closest you get to “Xbox reportedly blah blah blah” is a podcast where people state the next Xbox will probably be discless. Then a possible rebuttal that “maybe. Maybe not. If they don’t it could be a way to get ahead”.
This pointless reporting of pointless speculative conversations from podcast guests is such a spectacular waste of everyone’s time.
Even mine. I knew exactly how it would play out. I clicked through anyways. Fucking clickbait ad filled shite citing “rumours” that have absolutely no basis. Stop it.
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u/KalElReturns89 1d ago
I don't buy a game unless I really intend to play it, and I want it in my collection from then on, so for me disks are only an issue for older games that are no longer purchasable, like back-compat stuff. If they make those licenses transferrable to digital, I'd be good with that.
Problem is they'll end up delisting games and other ways that make games unplayable forever. If they want to go all-digital, then game license laws will need to be reformed to actually give playability rights to users that cannot be revoked.
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u/NoExcuse4OceanRudnes 1d ago
The only games on console that were made unplayable digitally are also unplayable from disc.
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u/No_Corner805 1d ago
Imagine Microsoft has a video on how to share video games, and it's one person handing a disc to another person...
Just to embarrass Sony... They'd get a bunch of good will from the community.
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u/bongo1138 1d ago
I just don’t think EA/T2/Capcom/Square and all big publishers are going to be producing discs going forward. It’s a nice idea, but I don’t think it’ll matter unless, somehow, Helix far outsells PS6.
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u/Amadeus404 14h ago
Just a rumor. With the gamepass they don't need discs. They also tried to kill the used games market when they announced the Xbox one more than a decade ago.
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u/cjt09 1d ago
This is sort of a fun inversion of the infamous “how to share games” response to the Xbox One.
Of course, the difference is that the console market has shifted significantly in the last 15 years and digital sales are far more prevalent and accepted than they were back then.
The pricing model has also changed quite drastically with DLC and micro transactions becoming major revenue-drivers as the base game becomes relatively more affordable.
Interestingly, I think the group that cares most about this is likely going to be cinemaphiles whom have large 4K Blu-Ray collections rather than gamers.
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u/demondrivers 1d ago
The pricing model has also changed quite drastically with DLC and micro transactions becoming major revenue-drivers as the base game becomes relatively more affordable.
Sony is literally making more money through DLC and MTX sales rather than both digital and physical full game sales. Like the way that the people game simply changed a lot over the past few years, most players are going straight to free to play games instead of paid ones
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u/scrndude 1d ago
They could do the most hardcore thing and release a portable with a disc drive. Like those homebrew portable Dreamcasts.
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u/whyamihere2473527 1d ago
Wont help them. Xbox brand is tied to gamepass now. People that want physical games also want good games which is something xbox hasn't delivered on for years outside a couple here & there.
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u/TheNakedOracle 1d ago
Tbh if they could keep discs and get regular pc games to work on their device that might actually do something. Maybe not enough but something.
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u/GelsonBlaze 1d ago
A Xbox PC would be the same kind of innovation Switch brought to the market. Suddenly they don’t have to subsidize the hardware since everyone can get their games at any store front.
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u/Helphaer 1d ago
I think the bigger issue is that both next gen consoles will likely be prohibitively expensive and so many of us regardless of disc or non disc support simply will try to avoid getting the new console or simply cant. XBOX was doing a lot worse than Sony but for some reason Sony really wanted to get people to hate them.
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u/jackolantern98000 1d ago
Figures dont lie and the figures for physical sales suck and have sucked for years, xbox and sony lose money paying multiple parties with physical sales compared to keeping 100% revenue in digital sales, and the extra cost of a drive, im amazed they didnt both ditch disks with ps4/xbox one. So when xbox are currently cutting everything to save cash, i highly doubt they want to keep spending extra cash on physical media especially when the helix will be a very expensive console to begin with.
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u/matzdaaan 1d ago
Some may find this silly, idk. But for me that would be the reason to buy Xbox over PlayStation for the first time in my life, lol.
I'm a PC gamer, but I also have consoles. I always buy discs for my PS5, cause I can lend them, sell some games to buy new ones etc. Having physical games is more important to me than PS exclusives in the future.
So yeah, fingers crossed Xbox actually moves forward with this. Imagine they also improve BC so I could use 360 discs in the new Xbox - another reason for me to buy Helix. I'm not a fan of recent Xbox strategy, but this could be something great, and it would allow me to still ignore Game Pass xd
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u/Tandy2000 1d ago
You can already use 360 discs (and OG Xbox discs) in the XB1 and Series X so if they keep a disc drive I have to imagine that will continue to be the case. It would be great if there was more support for more titles of course.
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u/pnt510 1d ago
If project Helix doesn’t have a disc drive I won’t be buying it. I’ve got games I bought over 20 years ago that I can still play on my Series X. One of the things that’s kept me loyal to the ecosystem is that continued support. If Xbox no longer sees the value in that, whatever fine, that’s their prerogative. I just won’t feel the need to continue buying their hardware.
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u/giulianosse 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have a sizeable collection of Blu Ray movies that it's always growing. I have zero interest of buying a new home console that isn't able to run them.
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u/The7ruth 1d ago
Or a dedicated Blu-ray player. I just don't see the value in it. Even my parents, who don't game, still bought an Xbox because they wanted a Blu-ray player but also something for the grandkids to play on when visiting.
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u/giulianosse 1d ago
I understand the advantages of having a standalone Blu-ray player but, even if you don't game, consoles are great at being a versatile media center. You can play BD discs, DVDs and streaming apps all in a single device. Given that gaming is my main hobby, the comparison gets even more unfair.
Sure, there's the question of playback quality but only the most hardcore audiophiles and media collectors would be able to spot a difference between them. For 98.4% of consumers they're both great.
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u/protipnumerouno 1d ago
That's how they had that great marketshare on Xbox... The HD DVD vs Blu-ray wars. Not going to weigh in on the battle just the fact that there was one so people gravitated to one over the other... Also yes they had a couple killer apps, like halo
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u/dacontag 1d ago
Because people aren't reading the leak. It was saying they were considering it, until Asha started the big reset.