It was insisted at the time that the details were "incredibly scant right now" and that there's a chance it doesn't come to fruition at all, but it attracted a lot of attention nevertheless, including from the Asian-focused retailer Playasia.
On social media, they insisted that they "don't want it at all", and that it would be a "disgustingly anti-consumer move". They also highlighted how they hope Microsoft "discontinues this project immediately" — although again, it should be noted that there's no guarantee they're even working on it as things stand.
Now, to be honest, we don't think referring to Microsoft as "Microslop" is doing any favours in terms of putting the point across here, but if we peel back the jibes, there is a good point to be made. A disc-to-digital program sounds neat in terms of providing digital access to our physical games at no extra charge, but if it was only to serve a fully-digital Project Helix console, it would surely mark the end of disc-based titles on Xbox before long.
There are far too many unknowns about all of this though. Is the program actually going ahead? Will Project Helix be fully digital, or will there be some kind of disc-based component (even if it's just an add-on?). How would a disc-to-digital program even work? It feels dangerous to jump to any kind of conclusions right now, although in Playasia's case we can see why they want to make their voices heard before any decisions are made.
We'll keep an eye on the rumour mill in any case, and it's worth noting that disc-based games on Project Helix is one of the top "XBOX Player Voice" requests right now, so hopefully Microsoft is hearing the feedback on that front. Let's just hope that dwindling physical sales aren't enough to bring about their total demise in the next generation.
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